The value of cleared checks decreased by 4.85% during the first three months of the year, illustrating lower business spending. In fact, the number of checks cleared by Banque du Liban amounted to 3.04M worth $17.15B in Q1 2015, compared to a total of 3.14M checks valued at $18.02B registered a year earlier.
The total value of checks in foreign currencies put a large toll on the fall of total value of cleared checks, as the value of checks denominated in foreign currencies declined by 8.06% to $12.53B compared to $13.63B in Q1 2014. In contrast, the value of checks denominated in Lebanese Pounds increased by 5.16% to reach $4.62B. In turn, the dollarization rate of checks retreated from 75.62% to 73.06%. As for returned checks, they constituted 2.15% of total value of checks.
In the month of March alone, the value of cleared checks declined by 4.69% from March 2014 to realize $5.90B. The value of checks denominated in foreign currencies (representing 73.24% of the total) went down by 7.47%. On the other hand, value of checks in LBP increased by 3.84% to $1.58B.
Value of Cleared Checks in Q1 ($B)
Source: ABL