The Lebanese Central Bank’s balance sheet conveys some $798.96 million contraction in its foreign assets portfolio during the first half of November 2019 to $37.13 billion, down from $37.93 billion a fortnight ago. When factoring out BDL’s portfolio of Lebanese Eurobonds amounting to $3.5 billion as per the disclosure made by the Central Bank, the latter’s foreign currency reserves would settle at $33.63 billion by mid-November, compared to $34.53 billion by end of October. In addition, the value of gold reserves at BDL contracted by 2.85% ($395.45 million) in the first half of November to $13.50 billion as gold prices dropped on the back of optimistic news that the United States and China might agree on a trade deal, in addition to the Fed’s decision to halt the rate cuts.

On an annual basis, BDL’s foreign assets came in 10.49% ($4.35 billion) lower than the $41.48 billion reading reported as at mid-November 2018. Conversely, the value of gold reserves soared by 20.92% ($2.34 billion) when benchmarked to the $11.16 billion figure recorded in the same period last year. It is worth noting that BDL’s total reserves (foreign currency and gold) cover some 110 months of debt service and constitute around 54.62% and 60.75% of Lebanon’s gross and net public debt on a respective basis.

In a related note, BDL’s balance sheet widened by $0.89 billion during the first half of November to $137.61 billion owing to some 3.48% expansion in the value of other assets to $36.60 billion, coupled with a 2.54% increase in the value of the securities portfolio to $35.13 billion, which altogether outweighed the 2.11% drop in the value of foreign assets to $37.13 billion, the 2.85% decrease in the value of gold reserves to $13.50 billion and the 0.12% decline in loans to the local financial sector to $14.98 billion.

The share of BDL’s foreign assets of the latter’s total assets fell to 26.98% by mid-November 2019, compared to 27.44% by end of October, with that of gold reserves dropping to 9.81% from 10.16% two weeks earlier.