The Central Bank of Lebanon has set the maximum limit for the sale of the dollar in exchange institutions at 3,200 pounds, after the local currency tumbled in the parallel market during the past few days, as the Lebanese pound fell to record low levels and approached 4000 against the dollar in the parallel market before currency exchangers started a temporary strike.
The official rate of the dollar remains in banks at 1507.5 liras, but the dollar is only available at this price for basic imports amid a severe dollar crisis.
The central bank set the exchange rate for money transfer companies at 3,625 pounds to the dollar.
The central bank announced that the exchange rate of the US dollar against the lira had risen "in an unjustified way in the past few days."
The rapid devaluation of the lira sparked small protests and threatened wider disturbances. two banks have been attacked, one with a small bomb and the other with incendiary bombs during the past two days.
The Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab attacked the governor of the central bank because of the currency collapse, prompting Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri to warn against dismissing the governor of the central bank who has been in office for a long time.
Previous attempts to set the dollar exchange rate failed, and campaigns against exchange firms that violate the ceiling failed, despite the closure of some of them.
Source (Al-Arabiya.net website, Edited)
