The Lebanese Central Bank’s balance sheet conveyed some $337.93 million contraction in its foreign assets portfolio during the second half of February 2019 to $38.88 billion, down from $39.22 billion in mid-February. Similarly, the value of gold reserves at BDL increased by $94.53 million on a bi-weekly basis to $12.23 billion as gold prices increased, fueled by safe-haven buying on the back of the abrupt ending of the summit between U.S.A. and North Korea, coupled with the military tensions between India and Pakistan.

On an annual basis, BDL’s foreign assets came in 10.33% ($4.48 billion) lower than the $43.36 billion reading reported at end of February 2018. Conversely, the value of gold reserves inched up by 0.50% ($60.41 million) when benchmarked to the $12.17 billion figure recorded at end of February 2018. It is worth noting that BDL’s foreign assets and gold reserves combined cover 117 months of debt service and constitute around 60.04% and 67.50% of Lebanon’s gross and net public debt on a respective basis.

In a related note, BDL’s balance sheet widened by $1.02 billion during the second half of February to $145.29 billion. This mainly comes as a result of the 2.22% growth in loans to the local financial sector to $36.88 billion, coupled with the 1.67% increase in the value of other assets to $26.03 billion and the 0.78% rise in BDL’s gold reserves to $12.23 billion, which outweighed the 0.86% drop in the value of foreign assets to $38.88 billion.

The contribution of BDL’s foreign assets to the latter’s total assets narrowed to 26.76% by end of February 2019, down from 27.18% in mid-February and 35.46% at end of February of last year.