The Lebanese Central Bank’s balance sheet conveys some $214.86 million contraction in its foreign assets portfolio during the second half of July 2021 to $20.06 billion, down from $20.27 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 $15.03 billion by end of July. In addition, the value of gold reserves at BDL dropped by 0.17% ($28.04 million) in the second half of July to $16.87 billion as gold prices dropped following a statement by the Federal Reserve indicating that the US economy has made progress towards reaching its maximum employment levels.

On an annual basis, BDL’s foreign assets came in 34.62% ($10.62 billion) lower than the $30.68 billion reading reported at end of July 2020. Moreover, the value of gold reserves dropped by 6.48% ($1.17 billion) when benchmarked to the $18.04 billion figure recorded in the same period last year. It is worth noting that BDL’s total reserves (foreign currency and gold) cover some 186 months of debt service and constitute around 32.80% and 36.77% of Lebanon’s gross and net public debt on a respective basis.

In a related note, BDL’s balance sheet increased by $0.68 billion during the second half of July to $158.87 billion on the back of the 1.26% ($0.84 billion) rise in the value of other assets (representing capitalized open market operations and seigniorage) to $67.17 billion coupled with the 0.19% improvement in the value of the securities portfolio to $40.57 billion which altogether outweighed the 1.09% contraction in the value of foreign assets to $20.06 billion coupled with the 0.17% drop in the value of gold reserves to $16.87 billion.

The share of BDL’s foreign assets of the latter’s total assets fell to 12.63% by end of July 2021, compared to 12.82% my mid-July, with the share of gold reserves also contracting to 10.62% from 10.68% two weeks earlier. The share of other assets continued its upturn reaching 42.28% of BDL’s total balance sheet as at end of July 2021.