According to Lebanon’s consolidated commercial banks’ balance sheet, total assets grew by 1.66% year-to-date (y-t-d) and by 9.19% year-on-year (y-o-y), to stand at $253.63B by May 2019.
In details, Resident customers’ deposits (which grasp 52.56% of total liabilities) decreased by 1.59% y-t-d to $133.3B by May 2019, with deposits in LBP and foreign currencies declining by 3.81% and 0.43% y-t-d to $44.71B and 88.59B, respectively. As for the Non-resident customers’ deposits (14.32% of total liabilities), they decreased by 3.73% y-t-d and totaled $36.32B over the same period on the back of a drop in deposits in LBP and in foreign currencies by 5.78% and 3.46% to $4.06B and $32.25B, respectively. As such, the dollarization ratio for private sector deposits slightly increased from 70.60% in December 2018 to 71.22% in May 2019. Accordingly, total resident and non-resident customers’ deposits stood at $169.62B in May 2019, declining by 2.06% y-t-d. In their turn, resident financial sector liabilities grew by 12.05% y-t-d to $1.24B.
On the assets side, Reserves (constituting 55.80% of total assets) recorded an 8.23% y-t-d increase to settle at $141.53 by May 2019. The increase in reserves came on the back of an 8.23% y-t-d climb in deposits with the central bank (BDL). Meanwhile, Claims on resident customers (19.42% of total assets) retreated by 4.90% y-t-d, to stand at $49.26B by May 2019. As for Claims on the government, they declined by 3.16% since the beginning of the year to stand at $34.08B. In details, the subscription to T-bills in LBP and to Eurobonds recorded a decline by 2.42% and 3.48% to $16.96B and $15.48B, respectively by May 2019.
Commercial Banks’ Total assets by May (in $B)
Source: BDL