Lebanon: the national currency keeps falling, the country with
Lebanese people line up in front of an ATM in Beirut.
(Drawing).
REUTERS - MOHAMED AZAKIR
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
The Lebanese pound hit a new all-time low on the black market on Monday, June 14, approaching 15,500 pounds to the dollar and continuing its tumble, in the wake of an economic collapse aggravated by the inertia of those responsible.
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In Lebanon, the national currency
continues to tumble
.
The Lebanese pound is again at its lowest on the black market, approaching 15,500 pounds to the dollar, while the official rate is still set at 1,507 pounds to the dollar.
Since the start of the crisis at the end of 2019, one of the worst since the second half of the 19th century, the Lebanese pound has lost 90% of its value against the greenback on the black market.
"
Lebanon is a bankrupt state"
This new collapse of the national currency risks worsening an already triple-digit inflation rate.
At the end of 2020, it exceeded 140%, recalls Alexandre Kateb, president of Compétence France, a specialist in Lebanon.
"
This fall in fact results in greater difficulty in repaying the debt, although the official exchange rate is still fixed. Nevertheless, the counterpart in dollars on the parallel exchange market is indeed very weak and this poses particular problems to the population in fact especially. There is an inflation that sets in knowing that at a certain moment, important transactions are always conducted in dollars, while salaries are paid in Lebanese pounds. This is really due to a catastrophic economic situation and to a banking sector which can no longer assume its role of financing the economy and financing the State. This resulted in a flight of dollar deposits and this is what precipitated the fall of the pound. Today, Lebanon is a failed state,it is a country that should be put under trusteeship
".
► To read also: Faced with a record fall in the pound, the Lebanese express their despair and their anger
Lebanon also suffers from serious shortages of gasoline and medicines, having forced the majority of gas stations and pharmacies, which declared Friday a two-day strike, to the closure.
The country has still been without a government for ten months, for lack of agreement between the parties in power, accused by the streets of letting the country flow.
Besides the monetary collapse and shortages, the country is experiencing an explosion in unemployment and large-scale impoverishment.
More than half of the population lives below the poverty line, according to the UN, while banks continue to impose draconian restrictions on savers.
(
With AFP
)
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