The Lebanese Central Bank’s balance sheet conveys some $707.25 million contraction in its foreign assets portfolio during the second half of May 2020 to $33.52 billion, down from $34.22 billion a fortnight earlier. When factoring out BDL’s portfolio of Lebanese Eurobonds amounting to $5.03 billion as per the disclosure made by the Central Bank, the latter’s foreign currency reserves would settle at $28.49 billion by end of May. From another standpoint, gold reserves at BDL increased by 1.45% ($227.52 million) in the second half of May to $15.92 billion as gold prices increased buoyed by tensions between the U.S.A. and China.

On an annual basis, BDL’s foreign assets came in 8.41% ($3.08 billion) lower than the $36.60 billion reading reported at end of May 2019. Conversely, the value of gold reserves soared by 33.26% ($3.97 billion) when benchmarked to the $11.94 billion figure recorded in the same period last year. It is worth noting that BDL’s total reserves (foreign currency and gold) cover some 143 months of debt service and constitute around 48.14% and 53.78% of Lebanon’s gross and net public debt on a respective basis.

In a related note, BDL’s balance sheet widened by $1.48 billion during the second half of May to $150.58 billion owing to some 4.17% ($1.90 billion) expansion in the value of other assets to $47.58 billion representing capitalized  open market operations and seigniorage, coupled with a 0.17% appreciation in the value of the securities portfolio to $38.59 billion and the 1.45% increase in the value of gold reserves to $15.92 billion which altogether outweighed the 2.07% contraction in the value of foreign assets to $33.52 billion.

The share of BDL’s foreign assets of the latter’s total assets dropped to 22.26% by end of May 2020, compared to 22.95% by mid-May, with the share of gold reserves expanding to 10.57% from 10.52% two weeks earlier.