Banque du Liban (BDL) disclosed its biweekly interim balance sheet on February 15, 2023, painting the shift from the old official rate of 1,507.5 LBP/USD to the new official rate of 15,000 LBP/USD. Two key-eye-popping accounts are to consider: loans to public sector and valuation adjustment. In details, the balance sheet uncovered a $16.50B loans to public sector and a $36.54B of valuation adjustment by mid-February 2023.
Moreover, the new rate revealed an annual drop of 38.02% in BDL’s total assets which stood at $101.53B by mid of February 2023. The decline was mainly due to the 84.22% year-on-year (YOY) drop in other assets, grasping 9.66% of BDL’s total assets and reaching $9.80B by mid of February 2023. Furthermore, the gold account, representing 16.67% of BDL’s total assets, decreased by 1.12% yearly to reach $16.92B by mid of February 2023.
BDL’s foreign assets, consisting of 14.59% of total assets dropped by 14% YOY and stood at $14.81B by mid of February 2023, noting that BDL holds in its foreign assets $5B in Lebanese Eurobonds. On a different note, total volume of dollars on Sayrafa platform reached $246M in the first two weeks of February 2023 while BDL’s foreign assets decreased only by $169.98B during the same period.
On the liabilities front, financial sector deposits, representing 88.73% of BDL’s total liabilities, decreased by 17.78% and reached $90.09B by mid of February 2023 compared to last year, of which more than two thirds are denominated in dollars. Lastly, currency in Circulation outside of BDL, consisting of 4.95% of BDL’s total liabilities, plunged by 82.10% annually to reach $5.02B by mid of February 2023 amid adopting the 15,000 LBP/USD official rate by BDL. Interesting to note, capital accounts of the Central Bank dropped by 79.73% annually from $3.52B by mid of February 2022 to $715.27M same period this year.
BDL Total, Foreign assets and Currency in Circulation by mid of February ($B):
Source: BDL, Blominvest