The Lebanese Central Bank’s balance sheet conveys some $287.19 million contraction in its foreign assets portfolio during the second half of June 2021 to $20.56 billion, down from $20.84 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 $15.53 billion by end of June. Similarly, the value of gold reserves at BDL contracted by 5.77% ($991.96 million) in the second half of June to $16.21 billion as gold prices fell amid a stronger US dollar and rising interest rates.

On an annual basis, BDL’s foreign assets came in 37.64% ($12.41 billion) lower than the $32.96 billion reading reported at end of June 2020. Similarly, the value of gold reserves dropped by 0.72% ($0.12 billion) when benchmarked to the $16.33 billion figure recorded in the same period last year. It is worth noting that BDL’s total reserves (foreign currency and gold) cover some 185 months of debt service and constitute around 32.63% and 36.58% of Lebanon’s gross and net public debt on a respective basis.

In a related note, BDL’s balance sheet narrowed by $0.67 billion during the second half of June to $156.75 billion on the back of the 5.77% drop in the value of gold reserves to $16.21 billion, coupled with the 1.38% contraction in the value of foreign assets to $20.56 billion and the 0.10% decrease in the value of the securities portfolio to $40.41 billion, which altogether outweighed the 1.00% ($0.65 billion) rise in the value of other assets (representing capitalized open market operations and seigniorage) to $65.32 billion.

The share of BDL’s foreign assets of the latter’s total assets fell to 13.11% by end of June 2021, compared to 13.24% as at mid-June, with the share of gold reserves also dropping to 10.34% from 10.93% two weeks earlier. The share of other assets, however, continued its upturn reaching 41.67% of BDL’s total balance sheet as at end of June 2021.