According to the balance sheet of Banque du Liban (BDL), the central bank’s total assets added 14.66% compared to last year, to reach $184.75B by mid of October 2022. The increase was mainly due to the 50.83% year-on-year (YOY) rise in other assets, grasping 47.97% of BDL’s total assets and reaching $88.63B by mid of October 2022. Furthermore, the gold account, representing 8.29% of BDL’s total assets, decreased by 7.62% yearly to reach $15.31B by mid of October 2022.
Moreover, BDL’s foreign assets, consisting of 8.14% of total assets, recorded a drop of 19.89% YOY and stood at $15.03B by mid of October 2022, noting that BDL holds in its foreign assets $5B in Lebanese Eurobonds. Meanwhile, total volume of dollars injected into the market through Sayrafa platform reached $542.90M in the first two weeks of October, crucially, however, the foreign assets of BDL added $139.15M during the same period. This could lead to one summary which is the Central Bank has absorbed from the market the total of $682.05M during this period. In more details, Sayrafa traded volume reached $9.55B since year start, whereas BDL’s foreign assets seem to have decreased at a slower path as they declined by $2.78B only.
On the liabilities front, financial sector deposits, representing 57.88% of BDL’s total liabilities, increased by 0.37% and reached $106.94B by mid of October 2022 compared to last year, of which more than two thirds are denominated in dollars.
Lastly, currency in Circulation outside of BDL, consisting of 25.06% of BDL’s total liabilities, since year start added 52.50% and 64.82% annually to reach $46.30B by mid of October 2022. Interesting to note, the increase of currency in circulation has coincided with a jump in other assets almost with the same amount. For the first two weeks of October, other assets added $6.87B while currency in circulation augmented by $7.19B just in two weeks.
BDL Total, Foreign assets and Currency in Circulation by mid of October ($B):
Source: BDL, BLOMINVEST