The Lebanese Central Bank’s balance sheet conveys some $396.14 million contraction in BDL’s foreign assets portfolio during the second half of August 2022 to $14.75 billion, down from $15.14 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 $9.72 billion by end of August. Similarly, the value of gold reserves at BDL fell by 2.96% ($487.22 million) in the second half of August to $15.99 billion as gold prices dropped amid a decrease in crude oil prices and a stronger US Dollar index.

On an annual basis, BDL’s foreign assets came in 24.65% ($4.83 billion) lower than the $19.57 billion reading reported at end of August 2021. Similarly, the value of gold reserves came in 4.42% ($0.74 billion) lower when benchmarked to the $16.73 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 25.44% and 29.54% of Lebanon’s gross and net public debt on a respective basis.

In a related note, BDL’s balance sheet narrowed by $1.79 billion during the second half of August 2022 to $169.28 billion on the back of the 1.08% ($0.91 billion) decrease in the value of other assets (representing capitalized open market operations and seigniorage) to $83.14 billion, coupled with the 2.96% drop in the value of gold reserves to $15.99 billion and the 2.62% contraction in the value of foreign assets to $14.72 billion.

The share of BDL’s foreign assets of the latter’s total assets decreased to 8.71% as at end of August 2022, compared to 8.85% a fortnight earlier, with that of gold reserves concurrently dropping to 9.45%, down from 9.63% as at mid-August. The share of other assets of BDL’s total balance sheet dropped to 49.11% by end of August 2022, down from 49.13% two weeks earlier.