BDL’s Foreign Reserve Assets Stand at $11.46B after a $31.75M Drop in the First Two Weeks of May 2026

According to Banque du Liban’s (BDL) balance sheet, the Central Bank’s total assets decreased by 1.01% Year-on-Year (YoY), reaching $93B by mid-May 2026.

Furthermore, the gold account, representing 45.17% of BDL’s total assets, increased by 43.36% yearly to reach $42B by mid- 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 12.33% 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 2.60% YoY (around $290M) and stood at $11.46B by mid- May 2026. Additionally, foreign reserve assets increased by $31.75M in the first two weeks of May 2026.

It is to be noted that in March and April 2026, foreign reserves assets balance decreased by around $446M after the resume of the war with Israel. On average, the fresh USD expenses paid by the Central Bank in March and April are around $980M ($500M for wages of public sector employees and $480M for circulars 158 and 166). Therefore, the central Bank must have collected around $534M in fresh USD within the two previous months. The reason behind this drop might be due to the decrease in remittances especially that a significant part of remittances is from Lebanese expats in GCC countries. Additionally, the stop of the tourism sector due to the war also affected the inflow of hard currency.

On the liabilities front, financial sector deposits, representing 87.13% of BDL’s total liabilities, decreased by 4.57% annually and reached $81.03B by mid-May 2026 compared to last year, of which more than 90% are denominated in dollars. Moreover, public sector deposits, representing 10.37% of BDL’s total liabilities, surged by 37.19% yearly and reached $9.64B by mid-May 2026. Lastly, currency in circulation outside of BDL, consisting of 0.7% of BDL’s total liabilities, fell by 24.63% annually to reach $655M by mid-May 2026.

It is interesting to note that BDL changed the composition of its foreign reserve assets, as foreign securities increased from $169M in March 2025 to $5.56B in March 2026, driven by the need for higher interest income.

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

 _{Source: BDL, BLOMINVEST}

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