According to the Central Bank of Lebanon, Lebanon’s Balance of Payments (BoP) witnessed, for the first time in 3 years, a surplus of $508.5M by February 2017 as compared to the $356.3M deficit recorded during the same period in 2016. In details, the Net Foreign Assets (NFA) of both BDL rose by $605.3M over the period on the back of the Swap operation that took place during the second half of 2016. As for commercial banks NFAs, they slipped by $96.8M by February 2017 compared to a $562.8M drop a year earlier.
Moreover, the BoP managed to record a growing monthly surplus of $341.8M in February 2017 alone, up from $166.7M in the previous month. In fact, the NFAs of both BDL and the commercial banks displayed monthly upticks of $306.0M and $35.8M, respectively.
Balance of Payments (BoP) up to February (in $M)
Source: BdL