According to statistics published by the Association of Banks in Lebanon (ABL), gross public debt widened by 0.43% ($429.85 million) during the month of April 2022 to LBP 152,377 billion ($101.08 billion), up from LBP 151,729 billion ($100.65 billion) a month earlier. The share of Lebanese banks of LBP-denominated debt fell to around 20.0% in April (down from 20.5% in March), while the share of the non-banking sector increased to around 15.9% (up from 15.7% in March) and that of Banque Du Liban rose to 64.1% (up from 63.8% in March). As far as foreign currency-denominated debt is concerned, sovereign debt in the form of Republic of Lebanon Eurobonds constituted 94.6% of total foreign currency debt, followed by lines of credit obtained through multilateral agreements (4.1%) and bilateral facilities (1.2%).

The average maturity of debt denominated in domestic currency narrowed to 3.90 years in April 2022 down from 4.07 years in March, with the weighted average annual interest rate on local currency debt concurrently dropping to 6.50%. 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.