According to Lebanon’s consolidated commercial banks’ balance sheet, total assets declined annually by 37.7% to stand at $104.64B by January 2024 amid BDL’s adoption of a new exchange rate of LBP 89,500 per USD effective 31/01/2024.
On the assets side, currency and deposits with Central Bank represented a high figure of 77.74% of total assets; they dropped annually by 26.13% to settle at $81.35B in January 2024. Deposits with the central bank (BDL) represented 99.89% of total reserves, and decreased by 23.52% YOY, to reach $81.26B in January 2024. Furthermore, Vault cash in Lebanese pound declined by 97.66% on a yearly basis to stand at $91.02M by the same period. The drop is attributed to the calculation based on the new official exchange rate of LBP 89,500 per USD.
Claims on resident customers, constituting 5.92% of total assets, shrank considerably by 64.49%, to stand at $6.2B in January 2024. Moreover, Resident Securities portfolio, representing 5.03% of total assets, dropped by 62.93% in January 2024 to stand at $5.26B. More specifically, the Eurobond holding recorded a decline of 24.55% since January 2023, to reach $2.19B by end of January 2024. Additionally, claims on non-resident financial sector grew by 5.58% YOY to stand at $4.4B by January 2024.
On the liabilities side, resident customers’ deposits were the main account, representing 66.39% of total liabilities; they dropped by 30.58% since January 2023 to reach $69.46B by the month of January 2024. In more details, deposits in foreign currencies (being 99.22% of resident customers’ deposits) declined by 5.6% YOY to reach $68.92B by January 2024, additionally deposits in LBP (0.78% of resident customers’ deposits) fell by 98.01% YOY to stand at $539M by January 2024 especially after applying the new official exchange rate of 89,500. This reveals that Lebanon has become dollarized and cash based.
As for Non-resident customers’ deposits, grasping 20.05% of total liabilities, they recorded a drop of 10.12% and stood at $20.98B in January 2024. In details, the deposits in LBP fell by 98.44% to reach $31.66M (after applying the new official exchange rate of 89,500) and deposits in foreign currencies declined by 1.74% to reach $20.95B over the same period. In addition, Non-resident financial sector liabilities held 2.59% of total liabilities and decreased by 37.94% YOY to reach $2.71B in January 2024. More importantly, the dollarization ratio for private sector deposits increased from 75.85% in January 2023 to 99.35% in January 2024.
Commercial Banks Assets and Residents Customer Deposits by January 2024 ($B)
Source: BDL, BLOMINVEST
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