Lebanon FX reserves down $2.2bln in 2022, $11bln left – central bank governor

Lebanon FX reserves down $2.2bln in 2022, $11bln left – central bank governor

BEIRUT - Lebanese central bank governor Riad Salameh said Tuesday the bank's foreign currency reserves had dropped by $2.2 billion so far in 2022 to about $11 billion, about a third of the level three years ago.

Salameh made the comments during a recorded interview with Lebanon's LBCI TV. As the interview aired, state security forces were raiding a home he owns northeast of Beirut as part of a judge's probe into alleged misconduct and corruption.

Once celebrated as a financial wizard, Salameh has been on the defensive since 2019, when Lebanon slipped into an economic meltdown that has seen the currency lose more than 90% of its value.

Lebanon had more than $30 billion in foreign currency reserves when that crisis began, but Salameh said the amount was now a third of that.

"The Central Bank (reserves) have shrunk by a net of 2.2 billion dollars since the end of the year," he said on Tuesday.

"We will have more than 11 billion that we can use."

He said that the central bank would propose to a newly-formed cabinet a law to issue bills in larger denominations to make the pound easier to use given the devaluation.

Lebanon is set to name a new prime minister