Not a day goes by without another aspect of the economic and living crisis emerging in Lebanon. Here is the government raising the price of a bag of bread by 500 Lebanese pounds to two thousand pounds, hours after the Lebanese army decided to remove meat from the daily meals of the military because of its high price.
Many were not surprised by the announcement of the Director General of the Lebanese Electricity Corporation that it was impossible to continue running the public facility, due to the lack of fuel.
Umm Muhammad - who is a Lebanese citizen from the northern city of Tripoli - asks how can the head of a family of five people provide bread on a daily basis, and the price of the bundle has increased by 500 pounds by a government decision ?! She adds to Al-Jazeera Net that things can not be tolerated.
This comes in light of the continued deterioration of the lira against the dollar and the loss of more than 80% of its value, which led to a crazy rise in the prices of food commodities in exchange for a decrease in the purchasing power of the Lebanese because of the loss of their salaries for their value.
Protest movements
In the context of the protest reactions, youths closed various roads in the capital, Beirut, condemning the deterioration of the value of the national currency, the high prices and the exacerbation of the living crises.
The protesters set fire to tires and containers to express their anger, and held the government responsible for the deteriorating economic situation.
Late decision
However, the Captain of Ovens Owners and Bakeries in Lebanon, Ali Ibrahim, indicated in press statements, that the decision to raise the price of a bundle of bread should have been taken a while ago, and justified this by saying that the rise in the price of the dollar against the national currency has accumulated great losses on the owners of the ovens due to their continued distribution of bread to stores Retail at previous prices.
On Saturday, the owners of the ovens stopped distributing bread to the shops and restricted the sale to their centers, which led to the citizens lining up in lines to obtain the bread.
Ibrahim says that the decision to raise the price of a bundle of bread came in agreement with the Minister of Economy, Raoul Neama, on the basis of calculating the price of the dollar 8 thousand Lebanese pounds, noting that he had approached the parallel market the threshold of 9 thousand pounds.
Beirut plunges into darkness
Simultaneously, the Lebanese were complaining of a blackout for long hours during the day, due to a shortage of fuel to power the power plants due to the delay in securing the necessary funds to purchase the materials.
It was noteworthy that the Director General of the EDL, Kamal Al Hayek, had declared, in a letter to the Minister of Works, Raymond Ghajar, that it was impossible to continue running the public utility.
However, a sparkle of hope appeared, in the past hours, Minister Ghajar announced, in a press conference of the House of Representatives, that three ships loaded with fuel oil "fuel oil" will arrive in Lebanon next week, which means a gradual improvement in the level of nutrition in the current, he said.
No meat for the army
In the midst of these interconnected crises, the Lebanese army decided to exclude meat from daily meals for the military, due to its high price and the inability of the companies providing food to the military to bear its cost.
This reality also applies to a large segment of the Lebanese who are no longer able to buy meat, the price of which has increased by one kilo from about 15,000 Lebanese pounds to 50,000 in a matter of months.
In this context, the economist Jassem Ajaga says to Al Jazeera Net that the social collapse is inevitably coming, in the event that the official authorities do not come to find solutions, and describe the existing reality - economic and life - unhappy.
The solutions, according to Ajaqa, lie in implementing the reforms demanded by the International Monetary Fund to provide Lebanon with billions of dollars to address its crisis.
Agaga warns that the Bank of Lebanon may not be able to continue securing the majority of commercial and economic operations, according to the official exchange rate, i.e. 1515 pounds per dollar.