The consolidated balance sheet of Lebanon’s commercial banks revealed a 0.32% progress in assets from December 2015’s level of $185.99B to $186.59B in February 2016, reflecting a 5.68% year-on-year (y-o-y) growth.
In details, total reserves amounted to $71.60B revealing a 0.85% year-to-date (y-t-d) increase over the same period. Loans to the private sector summed up to $54.56B by February 2016, of which around 88% were provided to resident borrowers. Private loans denominated in foreign currencies (FC) ticked up by 0.10% from December 2015 to $34.43B by February 2016. In turn, the dollarization rate of private sector loans slipped from 74.83% in December 2015 to 74.77% in February 2016. Furthermore, claims on the public sector posted an increase of 1.27% on a y-t-d basis to $38.28B by February 2016, mainly due to the increase in the banks’ subscription in Eurobonds.
Looking at the liabilities of commercial banks, resident private sector deposits down ticked by 0.01% between December 2015 and February this year to register $119.71B. Similarly, non-resident private sector deposits went down over the same period by 0.49% to $31.70B. By February 2016, local currency deposits experienced a 0.41% improvement to $53.46B (resident and non-resident). Moreover, the dollarization rate of total private sector deposits slightly dipped from 64.88% in December 2015 to 64.69% by the end of February this year.
Total Commercial Banks’ Assets by February (in $M)
Source: BdL