Banque du Liban's (BdL) interim balance sheet shows that its total assets reached LBP8,442.1 trillion (tn) on July 15, 2024, relative to LBP8,406tn at end-June 2024 and to LBP8,404.6tn at mid-June 2024. Assets in foreign currency stood at $15.47bn at mid-July 2024, compared to $15.12bn at end-June 2024, to $15.15bn at mid-June 2024 and to $14.4bn at mid-July 2023. The dollar figures are based on the exchange rate of the Lebanese pound of LBP89,500 per US dollar starting on February 15, 2024, according to the BdL Central Council’s Decision No. 48/4/24 dated February 15, 2024. These results were reported in the weekly economic report of the Byblos Bank Group - Lebanon This Week.

According to BdL, assets in foreign currency include $5.2bn in Lebanese Eurobonds as at mid-July 2024, nearly unchanged from endJune 2024. Further, BdL's liquid foreign currency reserves stood at $10.28bn at mid-July 2024 compared to $9.93bn at end-June 2024, $9.32bn at the end of 2023, and $8.57bn at end-July 2023. As such, liquid foreign currency reserves increased by $1.71bn from the end of July 2023.

Further, the value of BdL's gold reserves reached a historical peak of $22.2bn at mid-July 2024, relative to $21.5bn at end-June 2024, and to $18bn at mid-July 2023. Also, the securities portfolio of BdL totaled LBP 127,755.5bn at mid-July 2024 relative to LBP 127,974bn at endJune 2024. In addition, loans to the local financial sector stood at LBP 14,010.4bn at mid-July 2024 compared to LBP14,112.5bn at end June 2024.

Moreover, Deferred Open-Market Operations stood at LBP 151,293.6bn at mid-July 2024 relative to LBP 148,540bn at end-June 2024 and to LBP 118,971.3bn at end-2023. BdL said that, based on the Central Council's decision 23/36/45 of December 20, 2023, it has started to present all deferred interest costs originating from open-market operations under this new line item. As a result, it transferred all deferred interest costs included in the ''Other Assets'' and ''Assets from Exchange Operations'' entries to the new item. Therefore, the item "Other Assets" stood at LBP 14,054.9bn at mid-July 2024 relative to LBP 13,391.9bn two weeks earlier.

Also, the Revaluation Adjustments item on the asset side reached LBP3,274,655.4bn at mid-July 2024 relative to LBP 3,338,790.5bn at end-June 2024. It consists of a special account called the "Exchange Rate Stabilization Fund", in which it recorded all the transactions related to foreign-exchange interventions to stabilize the exchange rate starting in 2020 and that had a balance of LBP162.28tn at midJuly 2024 relative to LBP162.09tn at end-June 2024. It also consists of a special account in the name of the Treasury that stood at LBP 3,112.4tn at mid-July 2024 compared to LBP 3,176.7tn at end-June 2024. The account includes the differences between the countervalue, at the official exchange rate, of BdL's gold and currency holdings, and the value of these holdings at the market exchange rate, as well as the profits or losses on BdL's gold and currency holdings from the modification of the official exchange rate of the Lebanese pound or of a foreign currency exchange rate.

Further, the balance sheet shows that BdL's loans to the public sector totaled LBP1,486,786.5bn at mid-July 2024 relative to LBP1,486,772.7bn two weeks earlier.

On the liabilities side, BdL's balance sheet shows that currency in circulation outside BdL stood at LBP62,483.4bn at mid-July 2024 compared to LBP60,416.8bn at end-June 2024, and represented a decrease of 21.2% from LBP79,313.2bn at mid-July 2023. Further, the deposits of the financial sector reached LBP7,794.7tn or the equivalent of $87.1bn at mid-July 2024, relative to LBP7,791.3tn or $87.05bn at end-June 2024, and to LBP1,343.6tn or $89.57bn at mid-July 2023; while public sector deposits at BdL stood at LBP 461,637.6bn at mid-July 2024 compared to LBP433,219bn at end-June 2024 and to LBP110,671bn at mid-July 2023. BdL noted that, starting on March 15, 2019, it has offset loans with their corresponding deposits in Lebanese pounds that have the same maturities, according to the criteria in International Accounting Standard 32 and as per International Financial Reporting Standard 7 on offsetting financial assets and liabilities. As such, loans that were offset against financial sector deposits stood at LBP16.16tn as at July 15, 2024 compared to LBP23.33tn two weeks earlier. In parallel, BdL stated that it is currently working on changing its accounting policy in line with international practices.