Lebanon arrests money changers’ boss
Kuwait imposes stricter curfew 1,701 new cases reported in KSA IMF paints a bleak picture
Lebanon’s financial prosecutor has arrested the head of the money changers’ syndicate, Mahmoud Mrad.
Judge Ali Ibrahim accused Mrad on Friday of “manipulating the exchange rate of the dollar against the Lebanese pound,” and transferred him to the first investigative judge for questioning.
Authorities arrested 50 certified money changers a week ago for not having complied with the Central Bank’s circulars to set the exchange rate to 3,200 pounds for $1.
Some of those arrested were released after having signed a pledge to abide by the circulars, while others were kept in custody.
Lebanon is suffering from a dollar liquidity crisis. This has led banks to stop paying hard currency transfers in dollars, and instead pay them in pounds based on an exchange rate of 3,000 pounds for $1, not the market exchange rate. The crisis was aggravated by the country’s severe economic crisis and the coronavirus pandemic, which led to a surge in the exchange rate to 4,000 pounds for $1 on the black market. Meanwhile, opposition figures on Friday raised the issue of subsidized goods being smuggled to Syria. These goods mainly consist of diesel and flour subsidized by the Lebanese state.
Samir Geagea, chairman of the Lebanese Forces party, called on the general prosecutor to launch an investigation.
Meanwhile, Kuwait will enact a “total curfew” from 4 p.m. (1300 GMT) on Sunday until May 30 to help curb the spread of the new coronavirus.
Kuwait on April 20 expanded a nationwide curfew to 16 hours a day, from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m., and extended a suspension of work in the public sector, including government ministries, until May 31. On Friday, it announced 641 new cases and three deaths, bringing its total number of confirmed cases to 7,208, with 47 deaths.
The number of cases in Saudi Arabia exceeded 35,000 on Friday. The Kingdom recorded a total of 1,701 new cases on Friday — 22 percent of whom are Saudis and 78 percent expats — bringing the total number of cases recorded to 35,432. There are currently 26,865 people infected with COVID-19, 141 of whom are in critical condition. A total of 1,322 new recoveries was announced, meaning that 9,120 people have now recovered from COVID-19 in the Kingdom, while 10 new deaths were reported, raising the death toll to 229. The latest fatalities were a Saudi male and nine expats from Madinah, Makkah, Riyadh and Jeddah aged between 25 and 58, most of whom had chronic diseases.
There are 3.88 million cases reported worldwide, with 271,000 deaths and 1.31 million recoveries. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said that previous estimates for the world economy to contract by 3 percent this year were too optimistic. She said that worsening indicators in some countries could weigh even further on this forecast.
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