The Lebanese pound recorded an unprecedented decline in its value, exceeding the threshold of 3,000 to $ 1 in the black market.
The country has been experiencing for months the worst economic meltdown in its modern history with a severe shortage of liquidity and a significant decline in foreign reserves.
Since the summer, it appeared in Lebanon for the first time in parallel market contracts, in which the value of the local currency gradually decreased, while the official exchange rate is still fixed at 1507.
The devaluation of the lira comes in the parallel market despite a circular issued by the Banque du Liban in March, in which money changers were asked to set the purchase price of foreign currencies at a rate not to exceed thirty percent of the official exchange rate.
Since September, banks have imposed tight procedures on cash operations and withdrawing funds in general, especially in dollars. It also prohibited money transfers abroad.
In this regard, the International Monetary Fund expected that Lebanon's GDP would shrink 12% in 2020, amid a financial crisis that drained the country's hard currency and pushed it to default on debt payments.
Within the framework of its regional review of the economies of the Middle East and Central Asia for the year 2020, a report issued by the IMF showed a contraction of real GDP for Lebanon 6.5% in 2019, expecting inflation to reach 17% in 2020 compared to 2.9% in the previous year.
Source (Al-Arabiya.net website, Edited)
