Bank of Lebanon foreign currency reserves increase

The Central Bank of Lebanon (CBL) said that its foreign currency reserves increased by $185.82 billion during the second half of December. Foreign currency reserves reached $5.930 billion compared to $5.745 billion during the first half of the same month. This is the first time the reserves have increased since last September when the reserves were $6.427 billion.

A source at the CBL said that this increase occurred as a result of the money deposited by the Saudi National Commercial Bank which is worth $600 million, $500 million of which had been already deposited.

The CBL reserves include its own foreign currency deposits in addition to the money deposited by other banks. The CBL did not specify the net reserves, but banking sources said that the net reserves increased to $3.3 billion compared to $2.95 billion at the middle of last month.