According to the balance sheet of Banque du Liban (BDL), the central bank’s total assets fell by 39.06% compared to last year, to reach $103.75B by end of May 2023, amid adopting the 15,000 LBP/USD official rate by BDL. The fall was mainly due to the 90.15% year-on-year (YOY) drop in other assets, grasping 6.57% of BDL’s total assets and reaching $6.82B by end of May 2023. Furthermore, the gold account, representing 17.41% of BDL’s total assets, increased by 5.72% yearly to reach $18.06B by end of May 2023.
BDL’s foreign assets, consisting of 13.94% of total assets dropped by 9.73% YOY and stood at $14.46B by end of May 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 $1,478M in the last two weeks of May 2023, meanwhile, BDL’s foreign assets decreased only by $98.5M during the same period.
On the liabilities front, financial sector deposits, representing 86.45% of BDL’s total liabilities, decreased by 18.84% and reached $89.69B by end of May 2023 compared to last year, of which more than 90% are denominated in dollars. Lastly, currency in Circulation outside of BDL, consisting of 5.2% of BDL’s total liabilities, plunged by 81.34% annually to reach $5.39B by end of May 2023 amid adopting the 15,000 LBP/USD official rate by BDL.
BDL Total, Foreign assets and Currency in Circulation by end of May 2023 ($B):
Source: BDL, Blominvest
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