The balance sheet of the Lebanese Central Bank (BdL) revealed that total assets reached $137.61B in mid- November 2019, recording a 0.65% increase from end-October‘s 2019 level.
BDL’s “Foreign Assets” (constituting 26.98% of total assets) declined by 2.11 % (798.95M) since the end of October, to stand at $37.12B in mid-November 2019. This decrease can be attributed to loans in USD that BDL announced it is ready to provide to banks at a rate of 20% and for providing the necessary amount of dollars for imports of wheat, food, fuel and medicine. In details, over the last few months, dealers who buy wheat, medicine, and fuels in dollars and sell them in Lebanese pound, were facing challenges in securing enough dollars at the official price from the banks to pay for their purchases.
Meanwhile, “Securities Portfolio” (25.53% of total assets) increased by 2.54 %( 870M) compared to end-October 2019 to reach $35.13B in mid-November 2019. In fact, the BDL might be purchasing Lebanese treasury bills. In their turn, “Loans to Local Financial Sector” (10.89% of total assets) witnessed a downtick by 0.12% to $15B in mid-November 2019. As for “Gold assets” (9.81% of total assets), they recorded a decline of 2.85% since the end of October 2019 to stand at $13.89B in mid-November 2019.
On the liabilities side, “Financial Sector Deposits” (80.69% of the total liabilities) retreated by 0.24% since the end of October 2019 to $111B in mid-November 2019 while “Public sector deposits” (2.75% of total liabilities) increased by 10.69% to stand at $3.78B in mid-November 2019.