BEIRUT (Reuters) – Protesters burned tyres and held up handfuls of local currency bills on Wednesday at the doorway of the Lebanese central bank in Beirut, furious over the spiralling devaluation of the lira.
Lebanon’s economic meltdown, which began in 2019, has cost the lira around 97% of its value. The decline has been particularly steep in January, dropping from 42,000 Lebanese lira per dollar to a latest low of 56,000 this week.
That has prompted demonstrations and short-lived street closures in Beirut this week, and a number of dozen protesters gathering outside the Central Bank on Wednesday.
“I used to make use of this 16,000 Lebanese lira to purchase a kilo of meat for me and my kids. Now 250 grams costs 100,000. Our children are hungry, we’re hungry,” said Abu Ali, an older man from Lebanon’s south who was clutching a handful of Lebanese notes.
One other man ripped up a dollar as protesters threw rocks on the Central Bank.
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Because the crisis began, Lebanese banks have severely restricted withdrawals of dollars and lira, also generally known as Lebanese kilos – measures that were never formalised by law but have develop into governed by circulars issued by the Lebanese Central Bank.
“Perhaps the central bank governor will feel some empathy and stop these ignorant circulars on the expense of the depositors – that are masked haircuts and at the identical time systemic theft of depositors’ funds,” said Saeed Suweihi, a member of advocacy group Depositors’ Outcry, which organised the protest.
Petrol prices also jumped on Wednesday to greater than 1,000,000 Lebanese kilos for a 20-litre tank, unaffordable for a lot of those earning in local currency.
Lebanese central bank governor Riad Salameh in November said the official exchange rate, which has remained unchanged at 1,507 kilos despite becoming all-but obsolete – would change on Feb. 1 to fifteen,000 – the primary official revaluation in 25 years.
(Reporting by Maya Gebeily; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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