According to statistics published by the Association of Banks in Lebanon (ABL), gross public debt widened by 0.54% ($526.70 million) during the month of April 2021 to LBP 147,386 billion ($97.77 billion), up from LBP 146,592 billion ($97.24 billion) a month earlier. The share of Lebanese banks of LBP-denominated debt fell to 25.2% in April (down from 25.4% in March), while the share of the non-banking sector increased to around 13.0% (up from 12.8% in March) and that of Banque Du Liban remained flat at 61.8%. As far as foreign currency-denominated debt is concerned, sovereign debt in the form of Republic of Lebanon Eurobonds constituted 94.4% of total foreign currency debt, followed by lines of credit obtained through multilateral agreements (4.0%) and bilateral facilities (1.5%).

The average maturity of debt denominated in domestic currency narrowed to 4.45 years in April 2021 down from 4.51 years in March, with the weighted average annual interest rate on local currency debt dropping to 6.49% down from 6.50% during the same period. As far as the weighted average annual interest rate and weighted maturity of foreign currency debt are concerned, the ABL no longer publishes these statistics as a result of the government’s decision to suspend the payment of Eurobonds in March 2020.