Fuel prices rose on Tuesday (June 29) by more than 30% in Lebanon after a partial lifting of subsidies, while shortages have for weeks caused endless queues at gas stations in the collapsing country.

This price revision is a first step towards ending state fuel subsidies in a country stuck in one of the world's worst economic crises since 1850, according to the World Bank.

Until now, the Central Bank provided fuel importers with 85% of the dollars needed for their activities at the official rate of 1,507 Lebanese pounds to the dollar, a rate much more advantageous than that of the black market where the US greenback is traded. now over 17,000 pounds.

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This system of subsidies had so far made it possible to curb prices at the pump and mitigate the consequences of the collapse of the Lebanese pound.

But faced with the depletion of the Bank of Lebanon's reserves, the latter will now exchange the dollar against 3,900 pounds with importers, leading to an increase in fuel prices which will have repercussions on other sectors such as transport or transport. electricity, some private suppliers having already warned their subscribers of an increase in tariffs.

The price of a can of unleaded 95 rose on Tuesday by nearly 16,000 Lebanese pounds (9 euros at the official rate) to 61,000 pounds (35 euros), according to the national news agency (ANI).

The price of 20 liters of unleaded 98 has climbed 16,300 pounds to almost 63,000 pounds, while the canister of diesel has jumped to 46,100 pounds from 33,300 pounds previously.

The price hike comes as fuel shortages have crippled the country for weeks as scenes of motorists parked for hours in front of gas stations have become daily.

“We hate life here, we can't take it anymore,” says Noureddine Radwan in a long queue in Beirut.

"Every day, we stand in line. More humiliating than that, there is not. Soon, we will kill each other for gasoline," he fumed.

Half of the population below the poverty line

The central bank's announcement on Monday to provide dollars to importers at a new rate should help alleviate these shortages.

According to importers, the shortages are due to a delay by the Central Bank in opening new lines of credit, the Lebanese authorities attributing them to the storage of large quantities of fuel by traders and smuggling to the Syria.

The president of the fuel distributors' union, Fadi Abou Chakra, told ANI on Tuesday that six tankers had started unloading their cargoes.

"What has happened in recent days in front of the gas stations is unacceptable, it is a humiliation for the citizens", indicated Tuesday the president Michel Aoun, one of the political figures shouted by the street, who denounces a corrupt political class , incompetent and almost unchanged for decades.

During a security meeting he chaired, the head of state estimated that the new price list should "alleviate the crisis".

Since the onset of the crisis in autumn 2019, Lebanon has experienced an explosion in unemployment and inflation, which have accelerated large-scale impoverishment, with half of the population now living below the poverty line, according to the UN.

With AFP

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