Lebanon reels from double blow of virus pandemic and currency crash
Lebanon was reeling on Sunday under the twin blows of the coronavirus pandemic and a financial crisis that threatened to make the national currency virtually worthless.
Authorities recorded three new virus cases, raising the total to 707, and the death toll remained unchanged at 24.
Lockdown restrictions will be eased on Monday. Face masks are compulsory, but shops, factories and restaurants may open for longer, and people in vocational trades such as plumbers and carpenters will be allowed to work.
However, the pandemic is being overshadowed by the plunging value of the Lebanese pound and a political row over the culpability of central bank governor Riad Salameh. The currency has lost more than half its value since October and slid to record lows on the black market last week, reaching 4,200 to the dollar before currency dealers went on strike.
Prime Minister Hassan Diab blamed Salameh for the currency crisis, and the governor was also attacked by Free Patriotic Movement leader Gebran Bassil. “Thieving, corrupt, and greedy beneficiaries as well as bank owners, shareholders, and the central bank” were responsible for the state’s financial losses, Bassil said.
However, the governor was defended by parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri and Maronite Christian Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai.
Berri said Lebanon could not afford to remove Salameh just as it was entering negotiations with foreign bondholders after defaulting on debt obligations. “Lebanese will wake up to the price of the dollar at 15,000 pounds,” he said.
“If the central bank of Lebanon does not remain, then everyone knows depositors’ funds are gone for ever.”
Al-Rai said criticism of Salameh would only hurt Lebanon. “We ask, who benefits from the destabilization of the central bank governorship? We know the dire outcome, which is eliminating the confidence of the Lebanese people and other countries in the constitutional foundations of the state.” Amid growing public unrest, a bomb was detonated on Saturday night outside a bank in Sidon, the phrase “You are in danger” was sprayed outside several other banks in the city, and a bank in Tyre was attacked with petrol bombs early on Sunday.
Licensed currency exchanges are expected to reopen on Monday, and their syndicate chief Mahmoud Murad told Arab News: “We are literally holding our breath because things are heading in a very dangerous direction. “Some people are messing with the exchange market, and we know nothing about them except that they are controlling the exchange rate even from their homes.”