The Lebanese Central Bank’s balance sheet conveys some $39.80 million contraction (0.27%) in BDL’s foreign assets portfolio during the second half of April 2023 to $14.46 billion (LBP 216.85 trillion), down from $14.50 billion (LBP 217.45 trillion) 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 $9.43 billion (LBP 141.40 trillion). Similarly, the value of gold reserves at BDL fell by 2.17% ($405.51 million) in the second half of April to $18.29 billion (LBP 274.38 trillion) as gold prices decreased amid expectations that the Federal Reserve could hike interest rates by 25 basis points in its upcoming meeting next week.

On an annual basis, BDL’s foreign assets came in 11.05% ($1.80 billion) lower than the $16.25 billion reading reported at end of April 2022. Conversely, the value of gold reserves settled 3.63% ($0.64 billion) higher when benchmarked to the $17.65 billion figure recorded in the same period in 2022.

In a related note, BDL’s balance sheet rose by 0.19% on a bi-weekly basis to LBP 1,531.59 trillion. This owes to the 1.12% (LBP 5.84 trillion) increase in the valuation adjustment to LBP 526.87 trillion and the 2.56% (LBP 4.06 trillion) rise in the value of other assets (representing capitalized open market operations and seigniorage) to LBP 162.87 trillion, altogether outweighing the 2.17% contraction in the value of gold reserves, the 0.27% drop in the value of foreign assets and the 0.43% drop in the value of the securities portfolio to LBP 67.29 trillion.

The share of BDL’s foreign assets of the latter’s total balance sheet stood at 14.16% as at end of April 2023 while that of gold reserves, valuation adjustment, and loans to the public sector reached 17.91%, 34.40%, and 16.21% respectively.