Checks cleared by Central Bank at $28.75 bln

The number of checks cleared by the Central Bank rose to 5.29 million valued at $28.75 billion in the first five months of 2012, compared to 5.23 million checks valued at $28.25 billion registered in same period last year. Checks denominated in foreign currencies increased by 2.41 percent year-on-year to $22.81 billion, while the value of checks denominated in Lebanese pounds edged down 0.72 percent to $5.94 billion. The dollarization rate of checks stood at 79.34 percent compared to 78.82 percent recorded a year earlier. The value of returned checks declined by 8.12 percent year-on-year to $638 million, representing 2.22 percent of the total value of checks. For the month of May, the value of cleared checks jumped by 5.36 percent from May 2011 to $5.94 billion. Checks denominated in foreign currencies advanced 5.6 percent to $4.75 billion, while those in Lebanese pounds rose 4.46 percent to $1.2 billion. From DailyStar