According to Lebanon’s consolidated commercial banks’ balance sheet, total assets decreased annually by 3.61% to stand at $167.96B by January 2023. Note that valuation in USD is still at the old official rate of 1507.5 LBP/USD and will be changed to 15,000 next month.
On the assets side, currency and deposits with Central Bank represented a high figure of 65.56% of total assets; they dropped annually by 2.79% to settle at $110.12B in January 2023. Deposits with the central bank (BDL) represented 96.48% of total reserves, and slightly decreased by 3.80% YOY, to reach $106.24B in January 2023. Meanwhile, Vault cash in Lebanese pound jumped by 36.41% on a yearly basis to stand at $3.88B by the same period. The increase is attributed to the volumes of cash that banks are receiving from Sayrafa transactions.
Claims on resident customers, constituting 10.39% of total assets, shrank significantly by 27.42%, to stand at $17.44B in January 2023. Moreover, Resident Securities portfolio (8.45% of total assets) dropped by 16.68% in January 2023 to stand at $14.19B. More specifically, the Eurobond holding recorded a decline of 34.24% since January 2022, to reach $2.89B by end of January 2023.
On the liabilities side, resident customers’ deposits were the main account, representing 59.57% of total liabilities; they decreased by 2.97% since January 2022 to reach $100.05B in the first month of 2023. In more details, deposits in foreign currencies (72.97% of resident customers’ deposits) decreased by 7.70% YOY to reach $73.01B by January 2023, while deposits in LBP (27.03% of resident customers’ deposits) increased by 12.62% YOY to stand at $27.04B by January 2023. Customers seem to deposit more Lebanese pound into their accounts while others are conducting limited withdrawals in foreign currencies; in addition, most of transactions today are only paid in fresh dollars.
As for Non-resident customers’ deposits, grasping 13.90% of total liabilities, they recorded a drop of 3.87% and stood at $23.34B in January 2023. In details, the deposits in LBP added 2.37% to reach $2.02B while deposits in foreign currencies declined by 4.43% to reach $21.31B over the same period. More importantly, the dollarization ratio for private sector deposits decreased from 79.29% in January 2022 to 75.85% in January 2023. In addition, Non-resident financial sector Liabilities held 2.60% of total Liabilities and decreased by 10.06% YOY to reach $4.36B in January 2023.
Commercial Banks Assets and Residents Customer Deposits by January 2023 ($B)
Source: BDL, BLOMINVEST
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