BEIRUT —
The
Lebanese pound fell to a new low against the US dollar on the black market
Monday as a severe economic downturn has sparked bank hold-ups by angry
depositors and anti-government protests.
اضافة اعلان
Recent weeks have
seen a spate of incidents in which people armed with real or toy guns held up
banks to demand access to their frozen savings, only to be celebrated as folk
heroes.
Amid the turmoil,
the pound plunged to 38,600 against the greenback on Monday, according to
websites monitoring the exchange rate, a record low for the beleaguered
currency.
For decades, the
Lebanese pound was pegged at 1,507 to the dollar, meaning that it has lost
around 95 percent of its black market value since 2019.
At the Justice
Palace in Beirut on Monday, dozens stormed through a metal gate outside to
protest the detention of two people over last week’s bank hold-ups.
Elsewhere,
activists angered by Lebanon’s deep economic crash blockaded roads in the
capital and in the northern port city of Tripoli.
A financial crash
widely blamed on government corruption and mismanagement has caused the worst
economic crisis in Lebanon’s history.
Lebanese banker
Saeb El-Zein said the pound’s decline was due to a rising demand for dollars on
the black market following the government’s decision to lift state subsidies,
including on fuel.
‘Slow progress’
With four out of five Lebanese now living in poverty according to the UN,
the country has been desperately seeking a bailout from the
International Monetary Fund (IMF).
An IMF delegation
arrived in Lebanon on Monday to follow up on the implementation of the reforms
it demands, following a staff-level agreement in April on a $3 billion loan
program.
“There’s been slow
progress in implementing some of the critical actions that we think are
required to move forward with a program,” IMF spokesman Gerry Rice said last
week.
Amid the painful
crisis, Lebanese depositors have been locked out of their foreign currency
savings by banking controls that have gradually tightened since 2019.
Banks have in the
past been targeted in street protests, often leaving their windows and ATMs
smashed.
Now, many
frustrated depositors, unable to transfer or withdraw their dollar deposits,
have resorted to desperate bank heists to free their money.
Lebanon saw at
least seven such hold-ups last week, five of them on a single day.
As a result,
Lebanese banks sealed their doors on Monday as part of a three-day closure due
to the mounting security concerns.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
