During the week ending on February 15, Broad Money (M3) grew by a weekly LBP 276B ($183M) to reach LBP 208,583B ($138B). On a yearly basis, M3 added 3.73% and marginally rose by 0.24% since the start of the year.
M1 regressed by LBP 119B ($79M) to LBP 9,932B ($6.7B) over the week. The contraction is attributed to a LBP 124B ($82.3M) decline in currency in circulation and a LBP 5B ($3M) growth in demand deposits.
Total deposits (excluding demand deposits) climbed by LBP 395B ($262M) over the same week, on the back of a rise of $180M in Deposits denominated in foreign currencies and a weekly uptick of LBP 124B ($82M) in Term and savings deposits denominated in local currency (LBP).
The broad money dollarization rate climbed from 61.78% last week to 61.83% by February 15th. According to the Central Bank, the overnight interbank rate steadied at 4% in December 2017.
In the Tr easury Bills Auction held on February 15, 2018, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) raised LBP 803B ($533M), through the issuance of bills maturing in 6 months (6M), as well as notes maturing in 2 year (2Y) and 10Y. The largest demand was achieved on the 10Y notes, which accounted for 43.62% of total subscriptions, while the 6M bills and 2Y notes accounted for the remaining shares of 12.78% and 43.60%, respectively. The discount rate on the 6M bills stood at 4.87%, while the coupon rate on the notes maturing in 2Y and 10Y stood at 5.84% and 7.46%, respectively. The new subscriptions exceeded the existing maturities by LBP 699B ($463M).