Lebanon’s Central Bank announced on Friday that the audit of the bank’s gold reserves- coins and ingots- which came at the request of the International Monetary Fund, has been completed “successfully.”

The bank said that the amount of gold bullions declared corresponded exactly with the quantity of gold in its vaults.

In a statement issued by BDL, it said that the audit was carried out by an “international and specialized audit firm,” chosen and mandated by a delegated consultant, and at the request of the IMF.

The long-awaited audit was one of the reforms requested by the IMF to access $3 billion in loans to lift Lebanon out of the continuing financial crisis that has plunged almost three-quarters of its population into poverty.

“After completing the audit of Banque du Liban’s gold reserves, the company found they completely correspond to the entries recorded in the accounting records,” BDL’s statement said.

According to its latest figures, Banque du Liban's gold reserves were worth $16.4bn in mid-November 2022.

Lebanon’s gold reserves amount to 286.8 tons, 60 percent of which is in the vaults of the Central Bank, and the rest is in the United States of America.

In 1986, Lebanon issued law number 42 prohibiting the sale of all Bank of Lebanon’s gold reserves, only by a legislative text of the Parliament.