Meetings with dealers in the currency exchange market in Lebanon revealed that there is chaos in which exchange rates vary in the informal market, as the dollar was replaced by three different prices against the lira, while there were no dollars available according to the unified pricing system launched by the central bank this month, at the time Where there is a fifth price of the dollar against the Lebanese pound is the official price available only for imports of fuel, medicine and wheat.
Market dealers said that scarce dollars were traded in Lebanon at between 4,300 and 4,500 pounds today, not far from the prices witnessed last week when Lebanese President Michel Aoun said that the central bank would step in to support the local currency besieged by problems.
Aoun said on Friday that the central bank would start feeding the market with dollars today, seeking to halt a currency collapse that had caused economic trouble and sparked protests.
No statement was issued today by the Central Bank or the Presidency regarding pumping dollars.
Market participants said there was chaos in which exchange rates differed in the informal market, which is now the main source of liquidity for most people after banks imposed tight restrictions.
The local currency has lost more than 60 percent of its value since late last year, when Lebanon slid into a financial crisis that prompted the government to seek help from the International Monetary Fund.
The heavily indebted country maintains an official peg to the price of the dollar at 1,507.5 pounds, but with foreign exchange reserves shrinking, that price is only available for imports of fuel, medicine, and wheat.
One of the exchanges said that the price of the dollar today reached 4,300 liras, while another and an agent said that the US currency was traded at 4,500.
A second customer said he sold dollars at four thousand liras.
The price jumped to about 5,000 pounds last week, but then went down to 4,500 at some exchange offices on Friday in the wake of Aoun's announcement.
In an effort to curb the parallel market, the central bank launched a unified pricing system this month with the aim of reducing the price to 3,200. But importers said that dollars are not available at the lowest price, which was set today at 3910.