Lebanon struggles to unify exchange rates: Banque Du Liban's efforts fall short of IMF's conditions

Due to the failure to implement the International Monetary Fund's conditions for signing a final agreement with Lebanon, including the unification of the exchange rate of the US dollar, the Banque Du Liban is trying to fulfill this condition as compensation for the absence of a governmental monetary policy.

Sources at the BDL said that they are seeking to match the Sayrafa rate of the dollar with the market rate, even if there is a slight difference. 

According to these sources, keeping the sale of the US dollar through Sayrafa platform without ceilings will contribute to this.

The difference between Sayrafa rate and the market rate is currently 10,000 LBP, with the Sayrafa rate at 87,000 LBP and the market rate at 97,000 LBP, knowing that the Sayrafa rate was 90,000 LBP. Still, it recorded a decrease of 3,000 LBP for the first time in parallel with the decline recorded by the black market exchange rate.

In the coming days, it will become clear whether the Central Bank can further reduce the gap and make the Sayrafa rate the reference point.

Financial experts do not see this step as a legitimate unification process for the exchange rate because such a step is supposed to be sustainable. Its primary foundation is restoring trust in the Central Bank and the banking sector.

Experts say that the Central Bank had taken steps in this regard when it set the official exchange rate at 15,000 LBP and applied it to Circulars 151 and 158 and to bank capital, which was calculated in LBP at a rate of 1,500 LBP. 

This caused banks significant losses that were supposed to be compensated within five years. There are also rumors that, in the context of unifying the exchange rate, there may be two different rates: one for the market and one for bank capital.

These experts also point to another obstacle that currently prevents a unified exchange rate: the salaries of public sector employees who are supposed to be paid at a dollar rate lower than the Sayrafa and black market rates, given their deteriorating conditions in the absence of any reform plan.