Lebanon’s economy is in dire straits! The local government recently announced that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) surged 145.8% year-on-year in December, with Food prices soaring 402.3% and restaurant and hotel prices exploding 609%. On a full-year basis, Lebanon’s Inflation rose 84.9% last year, a record high since the existing statistics in 2013, and well above the 2.9% for 2019.
Lebanon’s political and financial crisis began in 2019, and the inflow of foreign currency and the central bank’s foreign reserves plummeted, causing the currency, the Lebanese pound, to collapse around the exchange rate and exacerbating inflation. The country’s economy was further hit by the Epidemic last year, as well as the August explosion in the capital Beirut, and has not been able to form a new government to revive the economy, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) aid negotiations are at a standstill due to differences between commercial banks, the central bank and creditors.
Lebanese people can currently import Medicine and fuel at the official fixed rate of LBP 1,507.5 to the U.S. dollar, and basic foodstuffs at the central bank-backed rate of LBP 3,900 to the U.S. dollar, but the exchange rate of the Lebanese pound has fallen to 8,800 to the U.S. dollar on the black market.
Recent Comments