During the week of 28 July to 3 August 2017, Broad Money M3 increased by a weekly LBP 763B ($506M) to reach LBP 208,026B ($137.99B). In addition, M3 recorded growth rates of 8.85% on a year-on-year basis and 4.51% since the start of the year.
Over the same period, M1 went up by LBP 405B ($269M) to LBP 9,887B ($6.56B). This increase is mainly due to a LBP 319B ($212M) rise in currency in circulation and an LBP 86B ($57.04M) uptick in demand deposits.
Total deposits (excluding demand deposits) rose by LBP 358B ($237M) over the same period, as term and savings deposits denominated in local currency rose by LBP 49B ($32.5M) during the week, and deposits denominated in foreign currencies climbed by $205M.
The Broad Money dollarization rate dropped from 60.13% on July 27th to 60.06% on August 3rd 2017. According to the Central Bank, the overnight interbank rate remained stable at 3% between December 2016 and May 2017.
In the Treasury Bills auction held on Aug. 17, 2017, The Ministry of Finance (MoF) raised LBP 733B ($486M), through the issuance of bills maturing in 6 months (6M), in addition to notes maturing in 36M and 84M. The highest demand was achieved on the 36M notes, which grasped a 54.61% stake of total subscriptions, while the 6M bills and 84M notes accounted for the remaining shares of 12.61% and 32.88%, respectively. The discount rate on the 6M bills was 4.87%, while the coupon rates on the 36M and 84M notes stood at 6.50% and 7.08%, respectively. New subscriptions exceeded existing maturities by LBP 410B ($ 272M).