The Lebanese pound recorded in the black market an unprecedented decline against the dollar on Thursday, touching the threshold of five thousand pounds against the dollar, according to Agence France-Presse dealers, despite the official sale and purchase prices being set, in a country experiencing an accelerating economic crisis and a crazy rise in commodity prices.
The authorities hold successive meetings with the International Monetary Fund in the hope of obtaining financial support to put an end to the prolonged crisis, at a time when the lira is close to losing about seventy percent of its value since autumn.
While the official exchange rate is still fixed at 1507 pounds, the Money Exchange Syndicate set Thursday the purchase price of the dollar at 3890 as a minimum and selling at 3940 as a maximum, in a step that I started days ago in coordination with the government in an attempt to fix the exchange rate at 3200 pounds.
While many banking shops closed their doors on the pretext of the lack of a dollar, one of the money changers in Beirut told France Press, speaking on condition of anonymity, that the price of selling the dollar on the black market amounted to five thousand pounds Thursday while the purchase of 4800.
And in the southern suburbs of Beirut, the dollar started buying in the morning at 4,850 liras, according to one of the money changers on the black market of France Press.
In southern Lebanon, one of the citizens said that he sold a sum of dollars in cash to a cashier at a price of 4,750 pounds.
In an effort to control the illegal exchange market, the BDL intends to start operating an electronic platform for exchange operations on June 23.
Lebanon is experiencing the worst economic crisis in decades, coinciding with the scarcity of the dollar and the banks' refusal to provide depositors with their money in dollars. The crisis caused an increase in the inflation rate and placed nearly half of the population below the poverty line.
The decrease in the value of the local currency is reflected in the prices of goods and food, and everything imported from abroad, such as furniture, electrical appliances and car parts.
Nabil, 64, a retired employee, expressed his indignation at the daily change in the exchange rate. He told France Press: "Yesterday I went to an electrical store to buy a refrigerator. The seller asked me to pay either $ 1,200 in cash or its equivalent according to the exchange rate of five thousand, or 6 million pounds, that is twice my monthly salary."