Balance of Payments Surplus as Change of NFA at $2,482.9M by April 2026, Compared to a Surplus of $7,842.5M by April 2025

BDL compiled April 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 $2,482.9M up to April 2026, far below the surplus over the same period last year of $7,842.5M.

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 $1,873.3M while the cumulative NFAs of commercial banks increased by $609.7M by April 2026.

On a monthly basis, NFAs of BDL rose by $482.2M while the NFAs of commercial banks increased by $334.3M in April 2026.

For a more meaningful analysis, we examine the NFAs of commercial banks for the month of April 2026. On the liabilities side, “Non-resident financial sector liabilities” decreased by $20.20M to reach $2.25B; in addition, “Non-resident customers’ deposits” rose by $19.43M to reach $21.3B. Meanwhile, on the asset side, “claims on non-resident financial sector” increased by $383.9M to reach $5.55B for the same period; similarly, “other foreign assets” rose by $39.87M to stand at $2.82B while “Non-resident securities portfolio” rose by $28.7M recording $1.5B.

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

_{Sources: BDL, BLOMINVEST Bank}