BEIRUT — The
Lebanese pound on Tuesday crossed the
symbolic threshold of 30,000 to the dollar on the black market in a new record
low, according to websites monitoring the exchange rate.
اضافة اعلان
The pound now trades at 20 times the official peg value of
1,500 pounds to the greenback, with no end in sight to the economic and
political crisis plunging ever growing numbers into poverty.
The currency has lost more than 95 percent of its value on
the black market in the past two years.
The purchasing power of people has plummeted, and the
minimum monthly wage of 675,000 pounds is now worth just $22.
Activists have called for rallies outside the central bank
headquarters in Beirut on Saturday to protest the devaluation of the currency.
According to the
UN, four in five Lebanese are now
considered poor.
The World Bank estimates it may take
Lebanon nearly two
decades to recover its pre-crisis per capita GDP.
The new record adds to the troubles of the
Lebanese government, which was formed in September but has failed to meet since October,
due to divisions over the fate of investigations into Beirut's gigantic port
blast in August 2020.
Read more Business
.jpg)
.jpg)
