Lebanon's Central Bank announced on Thursday that it has external liquidity amounting to $8.573 billion. This marks the central bank's first disclosure of this figure as part of its efforts to increase transparency following the departure of Riad Salameh, who governed the bank for a long time. The central bank did not provide figures from previous periods, but foreign exchange reserves were estimated to exceed $30 billion at the onset of the financial crisis in 2019 and have been declining since then.
Reuters calculations indicate that the net liquidity from the country's foreign exchange reserves stands at $7.3 billion after deducting external obligations valued at $1.27 billion. The Central Bank under Salameh did not reveal the sizes of assets and liabilities in its semi-monthly balance sheet reports. Salameh stated in June 2022 that the central bank had over $11 billion in "usable reserves."
In its statement on Thursday, the central bank said its obligations include Arab deposits worth $106 million and loans to Arab entities totaling $660 million. Gulf states have historically injected billions of dollars into Lebanon's fragile economy, but this support has declined in recent years with the growing influence of Hezbollah. Financial analyst and expert on the Lebanese financial crisis, Mike Azar, commented, "This is further evidence of the withdrawal of key Gulf Cooperation Council countries from their role as financial supporters of Lebanon in recent years."
