In the week ending February 28th 2019, Broad Money (M3) rose by a weekly LBP 1,356B ($900M) to stand at LBP 210,505B ($139.64B), rising 0.22% year-on-year (y-o-y) and declining 0.77% since the start of the year.
In details, M1 expanded by LBP 744B ($493M) over the same week, to settle at LBP 10,407B ($6.90B). The rise is attributed to the increase in currency in circulation and demand in deposits by LBP 105B ($69.65M) and LBP 639B ($423.88M), respectively.
Over the week, total deposits (excluding demand deposits) grew by LBP 612.18B ($406M). This rise was driven by the increase in deposits denominated in foreign currencies and term and saving deposits denominated in LBP by $101M and LBP 459B ($304M), respectively.
As such, the rate of broad money dollarization marginally declined to 64.11% in the week ending Feb. 28th 2019, from 64.46% in the week ending Feb. 21st 2019. In its turn, the average weekly interbank rate decreased to 4% in the week of Feb. 28th 2019 down from 7% compared to the previous week.
In the treasury bills (T-Bills) auction held on February 21st 2019, the Ministry of Finance raised LBP 163.28B ($108.31M) through the issuance of bills maturing in 3 months (3M) as well as notes maturing in 1 Year (1Y) and in 5 years (5Y). The highest demand was achieved on bills maturing in 5Y, grasping a share of 93.85% of total subscriptions. Meanwhile, the 3M and 1Y bills accounted for the remaining stakes of 1.85% and 4.30%, respectively. The discount rates on the 3M and 1(Y) bills stood at 5.23% and 6.10%, respectively while the coupon rate on the notes maturing in 5Y stood at 8%.