According to Lebanon’s Central Bank (or BDL), the Balance of Payments (BOP) recorded a deficit of $505.3M in the second month of the year, compared to a deficit $1.9B in the same period last year.
In details, BDL’s Net Foreign Assets (NFA) slipped by $1.6B by Feb. 2020. This may be partly attributed to the Central Bank relying on its foreign assets to cover the imports of essential goods for the country. Meanwhile, the NFAs of commercial banks recorded an uptick of $1.09B over the same period.
On a monthly basis, the BOP recorded a deficit of $347.4M in February 2020 as the NFAs of BDL slipped by $989.2M while commercial banks’ NFAs displayed a monthly uptick of $641.7M over the same period.
BOP by February (in $M)
