According to the balance sheet of Banque du Liban (BDL), the central bank’s total assets fell by 37.3% compared to last year, to reach $104.47B by end of June 2023, amid adopting the 15,000 LBP/USD official rate by BDL. The fall was mainly due to the 89.77% year-on-year (YOY) drop in other assets, grasping 6.55% of BDL’s total assets and reaching $6.84B by end of June 2023. Furthermore, the gold account, representing 16.99% of BDL’s total assets, increased by 6.08% yearly to reach $17.75B by end of June 2023.
BDL’s foreign assets, consisting of 13.69% of total assets dropped by 6.73% YOY and stood at $14.31B by end of 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 around $1,387M in the last two weeks of June 2023, meanwhile, BDL’s foreign assets decreased only by $104.03M during the same period.
On the liabilities front, financial sector deposits, representing 85.63% of BDL’s total liabilities, decreased by 18.67% and reached $89.46B by end of June 2023 compared to last year, of which more than 90% are denominated in dollars. Lastly, currency in Circulation outside of BDL, consisting of 5.18% of BDL’s total liabilities, plunged by 79.02% annually to reach $5.41B by end of June 2023 amid adopting the 15,000 LBP/USD official rate by BDL.
BDL Total, Foreign assets and Currency in Circulation by end of June 2023 ($B):
Source: BDL, Blominvest
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