According to the balance sheet of Banque du Liban (BDL), the central bank’s total assets added 18.02% compared to last year, to reach $191.04B by end of January 2023. The increase was mainly due to the 55.67% year-on-year (YOY) rise in other assets, grasping 49.45% of BDL’s total assets and reaching $94.47B by end of January 2023. Furthermore, the gold account, representing 9.2% of BDL’s total assets, increased by 6.42% yearly to reach $17.57B by end of January 2023.
BDL’s foreign assets, consisting of 7.84% of total assets dropped by 13.48% YOY and stood at $14.98B by end of January 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 $557M in the last two weeks of January 2023. Interestingly, the foreign assets of BDL decreased by $32.38M during the same period. Consequently, the Central Bank absorbed dollars from the market up to $262.31M and sold up to $294.69M through Sayrafa platform.
Noting that dollars on the Satrafa platform dropped remarkably compared to the first two weeks of January standing at $1.227B, as most banks stopped Sayrafa transactions for individuals on amounts up to LBP 100M by mid-January due to further tightening from the Central Bank.
On the liabilities front, financial sector deposits, representing 55.85% of BDL’s total liabilities, decreased by 2.68% and reached $106.7B by end of January 2023 compared to last year, of which more than two thirds are denominated in dollars. Lastly, currency in Circulation outside of BDL, consisting of 26.06% of BDL’s total liabilities, added 78.09% annually to reach $49.79B by end of January 2023.
BDL Total, Foreign assets and Currency in Circulation by end of January ($B):
Source: BDL, Blominvest