The Lebanese Central Bank’s balance sheet conveys some $102.58 million contraction in its foreign assets portfolio during the second half of March 2022 to $16.48 billion, down from $16.58 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 $11.45 billion by end of March. Similarly, the value of gold reserves at BDL fell by 0.29% ($51.65 million) in the second half of March to $17.74 billion as gold prices decreased amid strong losses in crude oil and rising US bond yields.

On an annual basis, BDL’s foreign assets came in 25.61% ($5.67 billion) lower than the $22.15 billion reading reported as at end of March 2021. On the other hand, the value of gold reserves came in 14.16% ($2.20 billion) higher when benchmarked to the $15.54 billion figure recorded in the same period in 2021. It is worth noting that BDL’s total reserves (foreign currency and gold) cover some 187 months of debt service and constitute around 29.08% and 33.32% of Lebanon’s gross and net public debt on a respective basis.

In a related note, BDL’s balance sheet widened by $0.77 billion during the second half of March 2022 to $162.70 billion on the back of the 1.18% ($0.85 billion) rise in the value of other assets (representing capitalized open market operations and seigniorage) to $72.94 billion and the 0.20% increase in the value of securities portfolio to $41.74 billion, which altogether outweighed the 0.62% contraction in the value of foreign assets to $16.48 billion, the 0.29% drop in the value of gold reserves to $17.74 billion and the 0.10% decrease in loans to the local financial sector to $13.50 billion.

The share of BDL’s foreign assets of the latter’s total assets decreased to 10.13% as at end of March 2022, compared to 10.24% as at mid-March, with the share of gold reserves concurrently dropping to 10.91% from 10.99% two weeks earlier. The share of other assets reached 44.83% of BDL’s total balance sheet by end of March 2022, up from 44.52% as at mid-March.