The Lebanese Central Bank’s balance sheet conveys some $43.77 million (0.30%) appreciation in BDL’s foreign assets portfolio during the first half of April 2024 to $14.86 billion (LBP 1,329.54 trillion) compared to a drop of $32.84 million during the second half of March (the first drop since August 2023), noting that this figure includes the face value of the ROL Eurobonds portfolio held by BDL amounting to circa $5.21 billion. The liquid foreign reserve assets of the Central Bank stood at $9.64 billion as at mid-April 2024, up from $9.60 billion a fortnight earlier. Similarly, the value of gold reserves at BDL increased by 6.58% ($1.34 billion) in the first half of April to $21.67 billion (LBP 1,939.07 trillion) as gold prices rallied to an all-time high on the back of increased bets of an interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve in June and global Central Banks’ gold buying frenzy amid world economic uncertainties.

On an annual basis, BDL’s foreign assets came in 2.48% ($0.36 billion) higher than the $14.50 billion reading reported in mid-April 2023. Similarly, the value of gold reserves settled 15.87% ($2.97 billion) higher when benchmarked to the $18.70 billion figure recorded in the same period in 2023.

In a related note, BDL’s balance sheet widened by 0.07% on a bi-weekly basis to LBP 8,366.34 trillion at mid-April 2024. This owes to the 6.58% increase in the value of gold reserves, coupled with the 0.30% rise in the value of foreign assets and the 2.22% increase in the deferred open-market operations (which includes deferred interest costs stemming from open-market operations) account to LBP 134.07 trillion, altogether outweighing the 3.50% drop in the valuation adjustment account to LBP 3,321.67 trillion.

The share of BDL’s foreign assets and gold reserves stood at 15.89% and 23.18% of the latter’s total balance sheet respectively at mid-April 2024, compared to 15.86% and 21.76% at end of March.