The Lebanese Central Bank’s balance sheet conveys some $241.49 million contraction in its foreign assets portfolio during the first half of April 2021 to $21.91 billion, down from $22.15 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 $16.88 billion by mid-April. On the other hand, the value of gold reserves at BDL rose by 3.70% ($575.66 million) in the first half of April to $16.12 billion as gold prices increased amid a higher than expected US Consumer Price Index.

On an annual basis, BDL’s foreign assets came in 36.80% ($12.76 billion) lower than the $34.68 billion reading reported at mid-April 2020. Conversely, the value of gold reserves soared by 2.05% ($0.32 billion) when benchmarked to the $15.80 billion figure recorded in the same period last year. It is worth noting that BDL’s total reserves (foreign currency and gold) cover some 189 months of debt service and constitute around 34.40% and 38.23% of Lebanon’s gross and net public debt on a respective basis.

In a related note, BDL’s balance sheet widened by $1.49 billion during the first half of April to $153.70 billion owing to the 1.92% ($1.14 billion) increase in the value of other assets representing capitalized open market operations and seigniorage to $60.49 billion, coupled with the 3.70% rise in the value of gold reserves to $16.12 billion and the 0.17% increase in the value of the securities portfolio to $40.83 billion, which altogether outweighed the 1.09% drop in the value of foreign assets to $21.91 billion and the 0.42% decrease in loans to the local financial sector to $14.08 billion.

The share of BDL’s foreign assets of the latter’s total assets fell to 14.26% by mid-April 2021, compared to 14.55% by end of March, while the share of gold reserves rose to 10.49% from 10.21% two weeks earlier.