According to the central bank’s (BDL) balance sheet, total assets recorded an increase by 5.31% since year-start, to stand at $148.86B in April 2020. In fact, this can be mainly attributed to the rise in “Gold” account (10.65% of total asset) by 13.73% to reach $15.85B in April 2020.
BDL foreign assets (constituting 23.12% of total assets) recorded a year to date decline by 7.64% ($2.85B) to reach $34.42B in April 2020. In fact, BDL is holding $5B of Lebanese Eurobonds. Moreover $20.9B are “usable liquidity” of which $18B are banks mandatory reserves. The remaining $8.49B is loans to local financial sector in Foreign Currency.
Meanwhile, BDL’s Securities portfolio (25.84%of total assets) added 1.25% year-to-date (YTD) to settle at $38.46B in April 2020. In their turn, Loans to the local financial sector in LBP (9.92% of total assets) witnessed a downtick by 1.21% to $14.76B in April 2020.
On the liabilities side, Financial Sector Deposits (75.88% of BDL’s total liabilities) rose by 0.84% YTD to settle at $112.95B in April 2020, while Public sector deposits (2.94% of total liabilities) decreased by 19.69% YTD to stand at $4.37B over the same period, as the government was withdrawing these deposits to cover its budget deficit. Worth mentioning that Currency in Circulation outside BDL (6.99% of BDL’s total liabilities) rose by 48.58% YTD to stand at $10.41B in April 2020. In fact, the increase in Currency in circulation is due to the BDL increase in money supply, following a series of circulars allowing depositors with foreign currency accounts to withdraw cash in Lebanese lira at market rate.
BDL Foreign and Total Assets in April
Source: BDL