According to the Central Bank, Lebanon’s Balance of Payments (BoP) registered a deficit of $3.3B by April 2019, up from the $773M deficit by April 2018.
In details, BDL’s Net Foreign Assets (NFAs) fell by $1.69B by April 2019 while the NFAs of commercial banks slipped by $1.61B over the same period.
It is worthy to note that in the month of April alone, Lebanon’s BoP recorded a substantial deficit of $1.3B, which is close to the BOP’s deficit of $1.38B registered in January 2019. This can be attributed to the prolonged delays in approving the government draft budget and the new reforms. In fact, BDL’s NFAs shrank by a monthly $589.3M while the NFAs of commercial banks fell by $710.8M in April 2019.
Balance of Payments by April 2019 (in $M)
Source: BDL