The Lebanese Central Bank’s balance sheet conveys some $333.35 million contraction in its foreign assets portfolio during the second half of May 2021 to $21.10 billion, down from $21.44 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 $16.07 billion by end of May. On the other hand, the value of gold reserves at BDL rose by 3.96% ($668.90 million) in the second half of May to $17.58 billion as gold prices increased over rising inflationary pressures in the US.

On an annual basis, BDL’s foreign assets came in 37.04% ($12.41 billion) lower than the $33.52 billion reading reported at end of May 2020. Conversely, the value of gold reserves improved by 10.44% ($1.66 billion) when benchmarked to the $15.92 billion figure recorded in the same period last year. It is worth noting that BDL’s total reserves (foreign currency and gold) cover some 209 months of debt service and constitute around 34.75% and 38.81% of Lebanon’s gross and net public debt on a respective basis.

In a related note, BDL’s balance sheet widened by $1.53 billion during the second half of May to $157.61 billion owing to the 1.80% ($1.12 billion) increase in the value of other assets representing capitalized open market operations and seigniorage to $63.59 billion, coupled with the 3.96% rise in the value of gold reserves to $17.58 billion and the 0.20% increase in the value of the securities portfolio to $41.05 billion, which altogether outweighed the 1.56% drop in the value of foreign assets to $21.10 billion and the 0.10% contraction in the value of loans to the local financial sector to $14.02 billion.

The share of BDL’s foreign assets of the latter’s total assets fell to 13.39% by end of May 2021, compared to 13.73% as at mid-May, while the share of gold reserves rose to 11.15% from 10.83% two weeks earlier.