Decoding Lebanons Remaining Reserves: Beyond Dollars in the Central Banks Vault

Decoding Lebanons Remaining Reserves: Beyond Dollars in the Central Banks Vault

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2023-08-17 | 10:22

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Decoding Lebanon's Remaining Reserves: Beyond Dollars in the Central Bank's Vault

Here's the unfiltered truth officially revealed by the ongoing audit led by the Acting Deputy Governor of the Lebanese Central Bank, Walid Mansouri:

As of July 31st, all the Lebanese Central Bank possesses in its dollar reserves amounts to $8.57 billion, excluding gold holdings. These reserves are divided as follows:

Cash in the vault: $1.5 billion

Central Bank's accounts in foreign banks: $6.8 billion

Investments in stocks, international bonds, and others: $218 million

In addition to this approximately $8.5 billion, we can add the value of the Eurobonds held by the Central Bank, which had decreased to $387 million after previously being valued at $5.2 billion before the state declared a halt to debt payments.

This is the entirety of the remaining dollar liquidity. But hold on!

Against this, the Lebanese Central Bank has payments and dollar commitments amounting to $1.27 billion, according to the audit, which includes:

Dollars for the public sector in open accounts totaling $275 million

Accounts for local banks: $8 million

Remaining SDR dollars: $125 million

Open credits for various expenses such as electricity, maintenance, and other state expenses: $96 million

Loans and deposits that the central bank must return to Arab entities: $766 million

Suppose