Balance of Payments Surplus as Change of NFA at $1,666.5M by March 2026, Compared to a Surplus of $5,368.3M by March 2025

BDL compiled March 2026 data using the two below sources as per the IMF recommendation to align with the International Norms:

• The “Sixth Edition of the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual” (BPM6, paragraph 6.64)
• The “Monetary & Financial Statistics Manual & Compilation Guide” (MFSM-2016 paragraph 4.16 & footnote 2 page 55)

According to BDL’s latest monetary report, the Balance of Payments (BoP) recorded a cumulative surplus of $1,666.5M up to March 2026, far below the surplus over the same period last year of $5,368.3M.

Based on the BDL Central Council’s Decision Number 37/20/24 dated 13/09/2024, BDL’s foreign assets starting January 2024 include the Monetary Gold, the Non-Resident Foreign Securities held by BDL, and the Foreign Currencies & Deposits with Correspondent Banks & International Organization; while excluding the Lebanese Government’s Sovereign Bonds and the BDL loans in FX to Resident Banks and Financial Institutions. The significant increase in the change of BDL NFA is mainly explained by the increase in the value of the Monetary Gold.

Accordingly, cumulative Net Foreign Assets (NFAs) of BDL rose by $1,391.1M while the cumulative NFAs of commercial banks increased by $275.4M by March 2026.

On a monthly basis, NFAs of BDL fell by $5,969.0M while the NFAs of commercial banks decreased by $70.0M in March 2026.

For a more meaningful analysis, we examine the NFAs of commercial banks for the month of March 2026. On the liabilities side, “Non-resident financial sector liabilities” decreased by $17.03M to reach $2.3B; in addition, “Non-resident customers’ deposits” fell by $66.04M to reach $21.3B. Meanwhile, on the asset side, “claims on non-resident financial sector” decreased by $307.9M to reach $5.2B for the same period; similarly, “other foreign assets” fell by $46.33M to stand at $2.8B while “Non-resident securities portfolio” rose by $37.5M recording $1.5B.

Cumulative Changes in the Net Foreign Assets of the Banking Sector up to March (2023-2026) in $M

_{Sources: BDL, BLOMINVEST Bank}