Jubilee Post News & Views
Special Desk
Worried over plunging currency hundreds of angry Lebanese took to the streets and dozens of them got injured.
Since 1997, pound has been pegged to the dollar at 1,507. Lebanon’s national currency plunged to a new record low on the black market against the dollar recently, as an ongoing economic crisis continues to wipe out savings and raise living costs, unleashing widespread protest.
Money changers told a news agency that the pound was trading at 17,100 to 17,500 to the dollar on the black market, while some social media users said it had fallen as low as 18,000. It is at least the second time this month the pound has hit a new low against the US dollar.
Several protesters were injured in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli in demonstrations held amid escalating tensions over the government’s decision to further slash the tumbling currency’s value.
Since the economic crisis began in 2019, the pound has lost 90% of its value against the dollar. In the coastal city of Tripoli, dozens of people took to the streets to condemn the currency’s depreciation and “difficult living conditions”.
Some protesters managed to break through the gates of a branch of the central bank and enter the courtyard, the agency added, but the army prevented them from reaching the building. Local media reports said five protesters and two Lebanese soldiers were injured in the clashes.
Demonstrators also set fire to the entrance of a government office. Lebanese youths burn tyres to block a main highway in the area of Jal el-Dib, east of the capital Beirut, as they protest against the country’s dire living conditions. Others were seen trying to force their way into the homes of two politicians but were stopped by security forces.
Lebanon has been roiled since 2019 by an economic crisis the World Bank says is likely to rank among the world’s worst financial crises since the mid-19th century. The collapse has sparked outrage at Lebanon’s political class, seen as woefully corrupt and unable to tackle the difficulties, it is now being said.
The pound’s dizzying depreciation comes as the eastern Mediterranean country grapples with shortages of medicine and fuel which are imported using foreign currency. The country has been without a fully functioning government since the massive blast in Beirut last year that killed more than 200 people and ravaged swaths of the capital.
The country’s caretaker government said it was reducing badly needed fuel subsidies, raising fears that the move would lead to a sharp increase in the price of basic consumer goods.
