The Lebanese Central Bank’s balance sheet conveys some $199.64 million contraction in BDL’s foreign assets portfolio during the first half of February 2023 to $14.81 billion (LBP 222.22 trillion at the new LBP 15,000/USD exchange rate), down from $14.98 billion (LBP 22.59 trillion at the previous LBP 1,507.5/USD exchange rate) 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 $9.78 billion (LBP 146.77 trillion). Moreover, the value of gold reserves at BDL fell by 3.67% ($644.46 million) in the first half of February to $16.93 billion (LBP 253.89 trillion) as gold prices increased amid a larger than expected rebound in US retail sales during the month of January.

On an annual basis, BDL’s foreign assets came in 14.00% ($2.41 billion) lower than the $17.23 billion reading reported at mid-February 2022. Similarly, the value of gold reserves settled 1.12% ($191.36 million) lower when benchmarked to the $17.12 billion figure recorded in the same period in 2022.

In a related note, BDL’s balance sheet rose by more than five-folds on a bi-weekly basis to LBP 1,522.96 trillion owing to the adoption of the new official exchange rate of LBP 15,000 per USD starting February 2023 instead of the previous LBP 1,507.5 per USD. In details, the value of foreign assets when translated into LBP soared by nearly ten-folds to LBP 222.22 trillion ($14.81 billion), with the value of gold reserves concurrently rising by more than nine-times to LBP 253.89 trillion ($16.93 billion), the value of other assets (representing capitalized open market operations and seigniorage) increasing by 3.27% (LBP 4.65 trillion) to LBP 147.06 trillion and the value of the securities portfolio rising by 12.89% to LBP 68.01 trillion, altogether outweighing the 1.75% drop in loans to the local financial sector to LBP 17.43 trillion. It is worth noting that following the adjustment of the official exchange rate, BDL recorded a net debit balance of LBP 247.58 trillion ($16.51 billion) in the form of loans to the public sector claiming this amount represents the counter value of the net cumulative balance of payments made by the Central Bank on behalf of the Lebanese government in foreign currency. This balance, exceeded according to BDL, the value of the public sector’s cash collateral in LBP placed with the Central Bank.

The share of BDL’s foreign assets of the latter’s total balance sheet stood at 14.59% as at mid-February 2023 while that of gold reserves, other assets, and valuation adjustment reached 16.67%, 9.66% and 36.00% respectively.