$3.3 billion surplus
in balance of payments

Despite strong deficit in trade

The Balance of Payments (BoP) recorded a surplus of $3.3 billion in addition to the $16.3 billion increase in the value of gold during the year 2025, according to Central Bank (BDL) figures.

BDL’s nominal net foreign assets (NFAs) more than tripled to $18 billion, those of banks and financial institutions doubled to $1.5 billion.

Based on available preliminary and partial data, academic projections, and trade figures, here’s a summary of what has been already published or can be reasonably estimated about some components of the BoP.



Trade Balance Exports minus imports (of goods) is a key part of the Current Account: Deficit of $17.4 billion including petroleum products, precious stones, pearls and precious metals. Without those exclusions, it would amount to $12.6 billion.

Current Account Trade balance of good and services, income, and transfer, is a major part of the overall BoP. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects it to be in deficit of around 12 percent of GDP. Based on a GDP of $43 billion (IMF’s current GDP estimate is $28 billion, which is outdated by new CAS and others forecasts, including InfoPro’s), the current account deficit becomes $5.16 billion.The IMF projection sees Net Services such as tourism and transport to contribute positively to the BoP. Net income and Services partially offset the goods deficit but are not large enough to fully close the gap. They are estimated at $12.2 billion. Forecast for remittances to be $6 billion to $6.5 billion for 2025 based on 2024 estimates that fluctuated between $5.8 billion and $6.8 billion. Forecast for net tourism receipts is $2.5 billion by subtracting $3 billion in what outgoing tourism is spending (Lebanese visiting abroad) from the $5 billion to $5.5 billion tourism estimated receipts by incoming tourism.

Financial and Capital Account By extrapolation the Financial and Capital Accounts become yielding a surplus of $8.36 billion. These include Investment flows (FDI, portfolio, bank deposits/loans).