The Lebanese Central Bank’s balance sheet conveys some $43.12 million contraction in its foreign assets portfolio during the second half of May 2022 to $16.02 billion, down from $16.06 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 $10.99 billion by end of May. Conversely, the value of gold reserves at BDL added 1.66% ($279.62 million) in the latter half of May to $17.09 billion as gold prices improved on the back of a weakening U.S. Dollar which attained a one-month low.

On an annual basis, BDL’s foreign assets came in 24.09% ($5.08 billion) lower than the $21.10 billion reading reported as at end of May 2021. Similarly, the value of gold reserves came in 2.80% ($0.49 billion) lower when benchmarked to the $17.58 billion figure recorded in the same period in 2021. It is worth noting that BDL’s total reserves (foreign currency and gold) cover some 180 months of debt service and constitute around 28.08% and 32.27% of Lebanon’s gross and net public debt on a respective basis.

In a related note, BDL’s balance sheet widened by $2.83 billion during the second half of May 2022 to $170.24 billion on the back of the 3.22% ($2.53 billion) rise in the value of other assets (representing capitalized open market operations and seigniorage) to $81.27 billion, coupled with the 0.20% appreciation in the value of the securities portfolio to $42.17 billion and the 1.66% rise in the value of gold reserves to $17.09 billion, which altogether outweighed the 0.27% contraction in the value of foreign assets to $16.02 billion.

The share of BDL’s foreign assets of the latter’s total assets decreased to 9.41% as at end of May 2022, compared to 9.59% a fortnight earlier, while the share of gold reserves remained almost stable at 10.04%. The share of other assets reached 47.74% of BDL’s total balance sheet by end of May 2022, up from 47.03% two weeks earlier.