BDL’s Foreign Reserve Assets Stand at $11.45B after a $16.4M Decrease in the Last Two Weeks of May 2026

According to Banque du Liban’s (BDL) balance sheet, the Central Bank’s total assets decreased by 0.82% Year-on-Year (YoY), reaching $92.98B by end-May 2026.

Furthermore, the gold account, representing 44.87% of BDL’s total assets, increased by 37.30% yearly to reach $41.72B by end-May 2026. Regarding foreign assets item, recently BDL amended it and replaced it by foreign reserve assets item to include only non-resident and liquid foreign assets. Thus, other resident and / or illiquid assets were transferred to securities portfolio or loans to local financial sector. In more details, Lebanese Government Eurobonds with a nominal value of $4.85B were transferred to securities portfolio; whereas $298.8M was transferred to loans to financial sector. As such, BDL foreign reserve assets, consisting of 12.31% of total assets (after transferring the Eurobonds to securities portfolio and the other resident and / or illiquid assets to loans to financial sector) rose by 3.04% YoY and stood at $11.45B by end-May 2026. Additionally, foreign reserve assets decreased by $16.4M in the last two weeks of May 2026.

On the liabilities front, financial sector deposits, representing 87.13% of BDL’s total liabilities, decreased by 4.34% annually and reached $81.01B by end-May 2026 compared to last year, of which more than 90% are denominated in dollars. Moreover, public sector deposits, representing 10.34% of BDL’s total liabilities, surged by 36.65% yearly and reached $9.62B by end-May 2026. Lastly, currency in circulation outside of BDL, consisting of 0.71% of BDL’s total liabilities, fell by 23.90% annually to reach $664.43M by end-May 2026.

BDL Total Assets, Foreign Reserve Assets and Currency in Circulation by End-May 2026 ($B):

 _{Source: BDL, BLOMINVEST}

N.B.: The foreign assets figures starting 2023 in the above graph are net of Lebanese Eurobonds.