The Lebanese Central Bank’s balance sheet conveys some $224.42 million contraction in BDL’s foreign assets portfolio during the first half of July 2022 to $15.11 billion, down from $15.34 billion a fortnight earlier. When factoring the portfolio of Lebanese Eurobonds held by the Central Bank amounting to $5.03 billion, the latter’s foreign currency reserves would settle at $10.08 billion by mid-July. Similarly, the value of gold reserves at BDL fell by 6.05% ($1,011.97 million) in the first half of July to $15.72 billion amid expectations of an additional interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve.

On an annual basis, BDL’s foreign assets came in 25.46% ($5.16 billion) lower than the $20.27 billion reading reported as at mid-July 2021. Similarly, the value of gold reserves came in 6.99% ($1.18 billion) lower when benchmarked to the $16.90 billion figure recorded in the same period in 2021. It is worth noting that BDL’s total reserves (foreign currency and gold) cover some 167 months of debt service and constitute around 25.63% and 29.68% of Lebanon’s gross and net public debt on a respective basis.

In a related note, BDL’s balance sheet widened by $486.04 million during the first half of July 2022 to $167.11 billion on the back of the 2.38% ($1.88 billion) increase in the value of other assets (representing capitalized open market operations and seigniorage) to $80.71 billion, which outweighed the 6.05% contraction in the value of gold reserves to $15.72 billion, the 1.46% drop in the value of foreign assets to $15.11 billion, the 0.25% decrease in the value of the securities portfolio to $41.97 billion and the 0.36% drop in loans to the local financial sector to $13.31 billion.

The share of BDL’s foreign assets of the latter’s total assets decreased to 9.04% as at mid-July 2022, compared to 9.20% a fortnight earlier, with that of gold reserves also dropping to 9.41%, down from 10.04% as at end of June. The share of other assets extended its upturn, reaching 48.29% of BDL’s total balance sheet by mid-July 2022, up from 47.31% two weeks earlier.