BDL’s Foreign Assets have reached the $26 billion
| Data from the Banque du Liban (BDL) shows that BDL’s foreign assets have improved from 52 % after mid-November, in comparison with the same period from last year, to reach 40 674 billion of LBP ($26.98 billion). |
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The report from The Lebanon Brief, the weekly bank report of Blominvest explains the dollar is in excess in the market change whereas the Lebanese pound continues to attract funds.
This change is explained by the difference in interest rate between the two currencies (3.5 % for the USD, and 7 % for LBP). This difference is pushing the BDL to purchase the excess of dollar, in order to keep a stability in the market change.
Furthermore, gold value have improved for 52 % on an annual basis, with an augmentation from 741 dollar to 1 119 dollar per ounce.
This change provoked an improvement of 35 % for the total actifs in comparison with 2008.
As for Government net borrowing from the Central Bank, it reached approximately LBP 3 330 billion, ($2.2 billion), showing a decrease of 22 % in comparison with last month and a decrease of 70 % in comparison with last year.
BDL sources estimate that these changes are due to the 13.36 % increase of deposit of public sector in the central bank on a monthly basis.
This increase in deposit, come from the excess of loans given to the government, which is considered costly for the Treasury and consequently will erase the positive effect of the primary surplus. This effect can be explained by the lack of efficiency in the management of the public debt.
Deposit of commercial banks, have risen in parallel with deposit of the financial sector, which have improved from 34 % in contrast with the same period last year, to reach a total of LBP55 561 billion (USD 37 billion).
Beirut
04-12-2009
Karl Soued
Ebizproduction
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