According to the balance sheet of Banque du Liban (BDL), the central bank’s total assets fell by 38.72% compared to last year, to reach $102.11B by end of April 2023, amid adopting the 15,000 LBP/USD official rate by BDL. The fall was mainly due to the 83.32% year-on-year (YOY) drop in other assets, grasping 10.63% of BDL’s total assets and reaching $10.86B by end of April 2023. Furthermore, the gold account, representing 17.91% of BDL’s total assets, increased by 3.63% yearly to reach $18.29B by end of April 2023.
BDL’s foreign assets, consisting of 14.16% of total assets dropped by 11.05% YOY and stood at $14.46B by end of April 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 $686.85M in the last two weeks of April 2023 while, BDL’s foreign assets dropped by $39.8M only during the same period.
On the liabilities front, financial sector deposits, representing 88.15% of BDL’s total liabilities, decreased by 18.46% and reached $90.01B by end of April 2023 compared to last year, of which more than 90% are denominated in dollars. Lastly, currency in Circulation outside of BDL, consisting of 4.40% of BDL’s total liabilities, plunged by 83.56% annually to reach $4.49B by end of April 2023 amid adopting the 15,000 LBP/USD official rate by BDL.
BDL Total, Foreign assets and Currency in Circulation by end of April 2023 ($B):
Source: BDL, Blominvest
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