#Lebanon Holds Firm on Peg With $1.4 Billion Boost to Reserves - Bloomberg

Lebanon Holds Firm on Peg With $1.4 Billion Boost to Reserves - Bloomberg:

Lebanon’s central bank has secured up to $1.4 billion in five-year deposits from private investors overseas, boosting dollar reserves in one of the world’s most-indebted countries and easing concerns that it could struggle to repay its debts and defend its currency.

Governor Riad Salameh said in an interview with Bloomberg TV in Beirut that Banque du Liban remains committed to preserving the Lebanese pound’s peg of about 1,507.5 to the dollar, in place for more than two decades, and has “ample” cash to do so.

“Contrary to what is being said, the supply of dollars is ample in the market,” he said on Friday. “Today, the central bank has closed deals of deposits with private, non-resident institutions, whereby in the second half of August our reserves went up by $1.4 billion to reach $38.6 billion. This is private non-resident money and not government money.”