Lebanon is the second country in the region in terms of gold reserves, according to a recent ranking by Forbes Middle East.
According to the list, published on Friday, Saudi Arabia was the country with the largest gold reserves in the region as of June 2021, with 323.1 tons of gold representing 4.1% of the country’s total foreign reserves.
Lebanon came in second with its 286.8 tons of gold, which represent 43.3% of its total foreign reserves — the highest percentage on the top-10 list that places Algeria third (173.6 tons, 18.2% of total foreign reserves).
Lebanon’s gold reserves remain the second-largest in the region despite its crippling economic crisis that has plunged the majority of its population into poverty over the past two years.
The same cannot be said about the crisis-ridden country’s other foreign reserves, however.
Lebanon’s foreign currency reserves plummeted to $15.2 billion (as of the end of June) in the first six months of the current year, a decline of 18.4%, according to Forbes.
At the end of 2020, the Central Bank of Lebanon had a total reserve of foreign currency worth $18.6 billion.
In March, Lebanon ranked 20th in global gold reserves in the World Gold Council’s report on the subject.
