The Lebanese financial sector’s net foreign assets widened by $300.8 million in May 2025, in comparison with increases of $2,474.2 million in April, $2,240.9 million in March, $919.1 million in February and $2,208.3 million in January. The aforementioned figures have been revisited by the Central Bank according to a new BDL disclosure in which it attributes the revision in the figures to the IMF’s recommendation to comply with international standards by including under foreign assets monetary gold, non-resident foreign securities, and foreign currencies & deposits with correspondent banks & international organizations while concurrently excluding the Lebanese government’s sovereign bonds and BDL loans in FX to resident banks & financial institutions. The sizeable increase in the change in BDL’s net foreign assets can be mainly explained by the rise in the value of monetary gold over the studied period. May’s figure can be attributed to some $217.8 million increase in the net foreign assets of the Central Bank coupled with a $83.0 million rise in the net foreign assets of banks & financial institutions. On a cumulative basis, the financial sector’s net foreign assets soared by $8.14 billion during the first five months of 2025 in comparison with an increase of $3.24 billion in the same period last year. This increase owes to some $7.25 billion expansion in the net foreign assets of the Central Bank, which was accompanied by an increase in the net foreign assets of banks & financial institutions of just below $890 million.