Banks start implementing 15,000 LBP exchange rate

As demanded by the International Monetary Fund, increasing the official price of the dollar to 15,000 LBP is a step toward rate unification.

Even though citizens who benefit from circulars 151 and 158 will receive their dollars at a price of 15 thousand LBP rather than 8 thousand and 12 thousand LBP, this new official price is still far from the price of the dollar in the parallel market, which exceeded 59 thousand LBP, and from the price of the dollar on Sayrafa platform.

Those with knowledge of the decision to increase the official dollar rate claimed that the Banque du Liban did so after considering that Lebanon might not be able to reach an agreement with the IMF. 

As a result, the Central Bank decided to act unilaterally without real reform measures and serious political treatment while realizing that such actions in the absence of all of the above would have only temporary and limited effects.

These insiders said Lebanon would start to regain confidence, and we would see an influx of foreign capital if a deal was struck with the IMF, reforms were implemented, and political treatment took place.

The Banque du Liban would then be allowed to intervene in the exchange rate market to halt the abrupt changes in the exchange rate of the dollar, adopting a strategy known as floating the exchange rate and making the price of the dollar via the Sayrafa platform as the reference rate.