The Lebanese Central Bank’s balance sheet conveys some $28.40 million contraction in BDL’s foreign assets portfolio during the first half of August 2022 to $15.14 billion, down from $15.17 billion a fortnight earlier. When factoring out the portfolio of Lebanese Eurobonds held by the Central Bank amounting to $5.03 billion, the latter’s foreign currency reserves would settle at $10.11 billion by mid-August. On the other hand, the value of gold reserves at BDL rose by 1.33% ($215.99 million) in the first half of August to $16.48 billion as gold prices increased amid a lower than expected US consumer price index for the month of July.

On an annual basis, BDL’s foreign assets came in 23.48% ($4.65 billion) lower than the $19.79 billion reading reported at mid-August 2021. Conversely, the value of gold reserves came in 1.76% ($0.29 billion) higher when benchmarked to the $16.20 billion figure recorded in the same period in 2021. It is worth noting that BDL’s total reserves (foreign currency and gold) cover some 173 months of debt service and constitute around 26.42% and 30.59% of Lebanon’s gross and net public debt on a respective basis.

In a related note, BDL’s balance sheet widened by $1.66 billion during the first half of August 2022 to $171.07 billion on the back of the 1.91% ($1.58 billion) increase in the value of other assets (representing capitalized open market operations and seigniorage) to $84.05 billion, coupled with the 1.33% rise in the value of gold reserves to $16.48 billion, altogether outweighing the 0.19% decrease in the value of foreign assets to $15.14 billion, the 0.19% decrease in the value of the securities portfolio to $41.83 billion and the 0.19% drop in loans to the local financial sector to $13.27 billion.

The share of BDL’s foreign assets of the latter’s total assets decreased to 8.85% as at mid-August 2022, compared to 8.95% a fortnight earlier, while that of gold reserves rose to 9.63%, up from 9.60% as at end of July. The share of other assets extended its upturn, reaching 49.13% of BDL’s total balance sheet by mid-August 2022, up from 48.68% two weeks earlier.