Lebanon: 30% increase in fuel prices
Queue at a gas station in Damour, Lebanon on June 29, 2021. Fuel prices rose more than 30% on Tuesday after subsidies were partially lifted.
REUTERS - AZIZ TAHER
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
In Lebanon, hit by one of the worst economic crises in the world since 1850 according to the World Bank, fuel prices rose on Tuesday June 29 by more than 30% after a partial lifting of subsidies.
For weeks, shortages have caused endless queues at gas stations.
Publicity
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With our correspondent in Beirut,
Paul Khalifeh
The increase in fuel prices is the first step before the total lifting of subsidies due to the depletion of the Bank of Lebanon's foreign reserves.
The country has been experiencing shortages of fuels and other consumer products for weeks.
These shortages are mainly due to three factors: the delay taken by the Central Bank in opening new lines of credit for the benefit of importers;
the smuggling of subsidized products into Syria;
and finally the storage practiced by suppliers and traders pending the lifting of subsidies in order to sell at higher prices.
The anger continues
Partial lifting of subsidies is a double-edged sword.
On the one hand, it should allow the market to be replenished with gasoline and fuel oil, but at the same time, it risks causing a rise in prices in a country where inflation has reached 120% in one year.
Six tankers began to unload their cargoes overnight from Monday to Tuesday and fuel began to be delivered to the various regions during the day.
However, this did not calm the anger of the Lebanese: demonstrators on Tuesday blocked major roads throughout the country in protest against the deterioration of their living conditions.
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To read also:
Crisis in Lebanon: anger explodes on the roadblocks of the capital
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Lebanon
Economic crisis