According to the balance sheet of Banque du Liban (BDL), the central bank’s total assets fell by 36.93% compared to last year, to reach $105.4B by mid-July 2023, amid adopting the 15,000 LBP/USD official rate by BDL. The fall was mainly due to the 90.26% year-on-year (YOY) drop in other assets, grasping 6.35% of BDL’s total assets and reaching $6.69B by mid-July 2023. Furthermore, the gold account, representing 17.12% of BDL’s total assets, increased by 14.79% yearly to reach $18.04B by mid-July 2023.
BDL’s foreign assets, consisting of 13.66% of total assets dropped by 4.74% YOY and stood at $14.4B by mid-July 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 $1,565M in the first two weeks of July 2023, meanwhile, BDL’s foreign assets increased by $91.08M during the same period.
On the liabilities front, financial sector deposits, representing 84.98% of BDL’s total liabilities, decreased by 18.69% and reached $89.57B by mid-July 2023 compared to last year, of which more than 90% are denominated in dollars. Lastly, currency in Circulation outside of BDL, consisting of 5.02% of BDL’s total liabilities, plunged by 80.65% annually to reach $5.29B by mid-July 2023 amid adopting the 15,000 LBP/USD official rate by BDL.
BDL Total, Foreign assets and Currency in Circulation by mid-July 2023 ($B):
Source: BDL, Blominvest
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