According to the Central Bank, Lebanon’s Balance of Payments (BoP) registered a deficit of $5.19B by May 2019, up from the $430M surplus by May 2018.
In details, BDL’s Net Foreign Assets (NFAs) fell by $3B by May 2019 while the NFAs of commercial banks slipped by $2.12B over the same period.
It is worthy to note that in the month of May alone, Lebanon’s BoP recorded a substantial deficit of $1.88B. In fact, BDL’s NFAs shrank by a monthly $1.37B this could be attributed to $650M payment of maturing Eurobonds on 20/05/2019 while the NFAs of commercial banks fell by $508.2M in May 2019.
Balance of Payments by May (in $M)
Source: BDL