Total BDL’s Assets Rose 2.37% in July

According to the Lebanese Central Banks’s (BDL) balance sheet, total assets recorded a month-on-month growth of 2.37% in July 2016 and a year-on-year growth of 11.98%, to reach $101.45B.

Foreign assets (36.23% of total assets) and securities portfolio (25.09% of the total assets) rose by 1.32% m-o-m and 6.41% m-o-m to reach $36.75B and $25.46B, respectively. This could be mainly linked to BDL initiating a swap operation, worth $3B, in two stages to boost its foreign reserves. The first, worth $2B, with the local banks, where the BDL bought back T-bills denominated in Lira at a “premium discount against their subscription to financial instruments denominated in dollars and their commitment to place foreign currency deposits at BDL”. The second, worth $1B, with the Ministry of finance (MoF), consists of swapping due Eurobonds for 10 and 15 year term  newly issued Certificates of Deposit (CDs).

Also, gold reserves (12.10% of total assets), increased by 1.06% from June 2016’s level to $12.28B. The rise in gold reserves can be attributed to the 2.18% monthly rise in international gold prices during July 2016.

As for loans to the financial sector (5.14% share of total assets), they ticked up by 0.86% to $5.22B in the seventh month of the year.

On the liabilities side, financial sector deposits, with a share of 79.03% of the total, rose 1.68% (m-o-m) to $80.18B in July 2016. Similarly, public sector deposits (6.51% of total liabilities) increased by 5.51% from June 2016 to reach $6.60B in July 2016.

BDL’s Total Assets in July (in $B)

Total BDL’s Assets Rose 2.37% in July

Source: BDL

 

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