The Lebanese Central Bank’s balance sheet conveys some $121 million contraction in its foreign assets portfolio during the second half of July 2020 to $30.68 billion, down from $30.80 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 $25.65 billion by end of July. From another standpoint, gold reserves at BDL soared by 8.08% ($1,349.32 million) in the second half of July to $18.04 billion as gold prices increased and reached record highs as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in addition to the rising tensions between the US and China.

On an annual basis, BDL’s foreign assets came in 17.26% ($6.40 billion) lower than the $37.08 billion reading reported by end of July 2019. Conversely, the value of gold reserves soared by 36.66% ($4.84 billion) when benchmarked to the $13.20 billion figure recorded in the same period last year. It is worth noting that BDL’s total reserves (foreign currency and gold) cover some 170 months of debt service and constitute around 46.91% and 52.04% of Lebanon’s gross and net public debt on a respective basis.

In a related note, BDL’s balance sheet widened by $2.37 billion during the second half of July to $154.13 billion owing to some 8.08% ($1.35 billion) increase in the value of gold reserves to $18.04 billion, coupled with a 2.12% ($1.07 billion) rise in the value of other assets to $51.68 billion representing capitalized open market operations and seigniorage, and the 0.17% increase in the value of securities portfolio to $38.83 billion which outweighed the 0.39% drop in the value of foreign assets to $30.68 billion.

The share of BDL’s foreign assets of the latter’s total assets dropped to 19.91% by end of July 2020, compared to 20.30% by mid-July, while the share of gold reserves expanded to 11.70% from 11.00% two weeks earlier.