The Lebanese Central Bank’s balance sheet conveys some $280.52 million contraction in its foreign assets portfolio during the first half of July 2021 to $20.27 billion, down from $20.56 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 $15.24 billion by mid-July. However, the value of gold reserves at BDL increased by 4.24% ($1.04 billion) in the first half of July to $16.90 billion as gold prices increased over the spread of the COVID-19 delta variant and the below than expected growth for the Chinese economy.

On an annual basis, BDL’s foreign assets came in 34.18% ($10.53 billion) lower than the $30.80 billion reading reported at mid-July 2020. In contrast, the value of gold reserves increased by 1.24% ($0.21 billion) when benchmarked to the $16.69 billion figure recorded in the same period last year. It is worth noting that BDL’s total reserves (foreign currency and gold) cover some 187 months of debt service and constitute around 33.05% and 37.05% of Lebanon’s gross and net public debt on a respective basis.

In a related note, BDL’s balance sheet increased by $1.44 billion during the first half of July to $158.19 billion on the back of the 4.24% rise in the value of gold reserves to $16.90 billion, coupled with the 1.54% ($1.01 billion) rise in the value of other assets (representing capitalized open market operations and seigniorage) to $66.33 billion and the 0.18% improvement in the value of the securities portfolio to $40.49 billion which altogether outweighed the 1.36% contraction in the value of foreign assets to $20.27 billion and the 0.35% decrease in the value of loans to the financial sector to $13.93 billion.

The share of BDL’s foreign assets of the latter’s total assets fell to 12.82% by mid-July 2021, compared to 13.11% as at end of June, with the share of gold reserves improving to 10.68% from 10.34% two weeks earlier. The share of other assets continued its upturn reaching 41.93% of BDL’s total balance sheet as at mid-July 2021.