BDL’s Foreign Reserve Assets Stand at $12.04B after a $146.82M Increase in the First Two Weeks of January 2026

According to Banque du Liban’s (BDL) balance sheet, the Central Bank’s total assets increased by 0.89% Year-on-Year (YoY), reaching $94.04B by mid-January 2026.

Furthermore, the gold account, representing 45.29% of BDL’s total assets, increased by 71.84% yearly to reach $42.6B by mid-January 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 12.80% 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 16.40% YoY and stood at $12.04B by mid-January 2026. Additionally, foreign reserve assets increased by $146.82M in the first two weeks of   January 2026.

On the liabilities front, financial sector deposits, representing 88.20% of BDL’s total liabilities, decreased by 2.67% annually and reached $82.95B by mid-January 2026 compared to last year, of which more than 90% are denominated in dollars. Moreover, public sector deposits, representing 9.43% of BDL’s total liabilities, rose by 45.40% yearly and reached $8.9B by mid-January 2026. Lastly, currency in circulation outside of BDL, consisting of 0.84% of BDL’s total liabilities, fell by 15.88% annually to reach $789.8M by mid-January 2026.

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

_{Source: BDL, BLOMINVEST}

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

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