The Lebanese Central Bank’s balance sheet conveys some $366.66 million contraction in its foreign assets portfolio during the second half of December 2019 to $37.27 billion, down from $37.61 billion a fortnight ago. When factoring out BDL’s portfolio of Lebanese Eurobonds amounting to $5.7 billion as per the disclosure made by the Central Bank, the latter’s foreign currency reserves would settle at $31.57 billion by end of December. From another standpoint, the value of gold reserves at BDL expanded by 2.71% ($367.97 million) in the second half of December to $13.94 billion as gold prices increased amid a weak U.S. dollar that encouraged investors to buy the safe-haven metal.

On an annual basis, BDL’s foreign assets came in 6.04% ($2.39 billion) lower than the $39.67 billion reading reported as at end of December 2018. Conversely, the value of gold reserves soared by 18.43% ($2.17 billion) when benchmarked to the $11.77 billion figure recorded in the same period last year. It is worth noting that BDL’s total reserves (foreign currency and gold) cover some 107 months of debt service and constitute around 52.26% and 57.80% of Lebanon’s gross and net public debt on a respective basis.

In a related note, BDL’s balance sheet narrowed by $0.39 billion during the second half of December to $141.36 billion owing to some 3.92% contraction in the value of other assets to $36.95 billion coupled with some 0.90% drop in the value of foreign assets to $37.27 billion, which altogether outweighed the 2.95% rise in the value of the securities portfolio to $37.99 billion and the 2.71% increase in the value of gold reserves to $13.94 billion.

The share of BDL’s foreign assets of the latter’s total assets dropped to 26.37% by end of December 2019, compared to 26.53% by mid-December, while that of gold reserves widened to 9.86% from 9.57% two weeks earlier.