The Central Bank of Lebanon announced - in a statement - today, Wednesday, a new official exchange rate for the pound at 15,000 to the dollar.
This constitutes a significant reduction from the previous official exchange rate, which remained at 1,507.5 pounds to the dollar, unchanged for about 25 years.
The Governor of the Banque du Liban, Riad Salameh, told Reuters - yesterday, Tuesday - that the change is a step towards unifying the multiple exchange rates in the country, and comes in line with the demands of the International Monetary Fund.
The new official price of 15,000 pounds per dollar remains approximately 4 times lower than the real value of the pound in the parallel market, where the US currency is now trading at about 58,000 Lebanese pounds.
Since 2019, Lebanon has witnessed an economic collapse, which the World Bank ranked among the worst in the world, with the local currency losing about 95% of its value, and more than 80% of its population is below the poverty line.
The International Monetary Fund is calling for reforms to unlock vital aid for the country.
Among these reforms:
exchange rate unification.
Amending the banking secrecy law.
Restructuring the banking sector.
Passing a law on capital control.
The new official exchange rate will apply to local currency withdrawals from dollar bank accounts from which depositors have not been able to withdraw in hard currency since 2019.