According to the balance sheet of Banque du Liban (BDL), the central bank’s total assets fell by 37.12% compared to last year, to reach $104.72B by mid-June 2023, amid adopting the 15,000 LBP/USD official rate by BDL. The fall was mainly due to the 89.61% year-on-year (YOY) drop in other assets, grasping 6.58% of BDL’s total assets and reaching $6.89B by mid-June 2023. Furthermore, the gold account, representing 17.04% of BDL’s total assets, increased by 6.13% yearly to reach $17.85B by mid-June 2023.
BDL’s foreign assets, consisting of 13.76% of total assets dropped by 7.09% YOY and stood at $14.41B by mid-June 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 $1,903M in the first two weeks of June 2023, meanwhile, BDL’s foreign assets decreased only by $49.94M during the same period.
On the liabilities front, financial sector deposits, representing 85.5% of BDL’s total liabilities, decreased by 18.7% and reached $89.54B by mid-June 2023 compared to last year, of which more than 90% are denominated in dollars. Lastly, currency in Circulation outside of BDL, consisting of 5.06% of BDL’s total liabilities, plunged by 79.22% annually to reach $5.3B by mid-June 2023 amid adopting the 15,000 LBP/USD official rate by BDL.
BDL Total, Foreign assets and Currency in Circulation by mid-June 2023 ($B):
Source: BDL, Blominvest
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