According to Lebanon’s consolidated commercial banks’ balance sheet, total assets decreased by 2.97%, year-to-date (y-t-d), to stand at $210.33B in February 2020.
In details, Resident customers’ deposits (which grasp 57.03% of total liabilities) decreased since the start of the year by 2.97% ($5B) to $119.96B in February 2020, with deposits in LBP and in foreign currencies declining by 11.22% and 1.32% to $30.60B and $89.35B, respectively. As for the Non-resident customers’ deposits (14.40% of total liabilities), they retreated by 6.63% ($2.15B) and totaled $30.29B over the same period on the back of a drop in deposits in LBP and in foreign currencies by 10.85% and 6.18% to $2.79B and $27.50B, respectively. As such, the dollarization ratio for private sector deposits increased from 76.02% in December 2019 to 77.63% in February 2020.
On the assets side, Reserves (constituting 56.15% of total assets) recorded a downtick of 0.09% to settle at $118.10B in February 2020. Deposits with the central bank (BDL) (99.4% of total reserves) recorded a monthly downtick of 0.28% to reach $117.39B. Meanwhile, the current economic crisis weighted on Claims on resident customers (19.31% of total assets) which retreated by 7.49%, to stand at $40.62B in Feb.2020. As for Claims on the government, they declined by 8.31% during the year to stand at $27.56B. In details, the subscription to T-bills in LBP and to Eurobonds recorded a decline by 1.99% and 15.80% to $14.35B and $11.63B, respectively in Feb. 2020.
Total Commercial Banks Assets ($B)
Source: BDL