Food Importers Syndicate: Inflation due to currency collapse and soaring dollar exchange rate

The syndicate of food importers considered on Wednesday that the significant inflation in food prices is due to one fundamental reason, which is the collapse of the national currency and the insane increase in the exchange rate of the dollar. 

The syndicate issued a statement clarifying the confusion around the World Bank's report on food price inflation, which indicates that "Lebanon ranked first globally in terms of food price inflation, with an increase of 261% between the end of February 2022 and the end of February 2023." 

The syndicate confirmed that "the significant inflation in food prices is due to one fundamental reason, which is the collapse of the national currency and the insane increase in the exchange rate of the dollar, especially since the prices of food in the World Bank report for Lebanon were evaluated in Lebanese lira, not in US dollars."

The statement also pointed out that the catastrophic increase in the dollar's exchange rate against the Lebanese lira between the end of February 2022 and the end of February 2023 led to this excessive inflation in food prices in Lebanon. 

The syndicate said that it had called "urgently and for about two years on the state to take radical economic and financial reform measures to curb the rise in the exchange rate of the dollar against the Lebanese lira and thus reduce it, to maintain the purchasing power of citizens and avoid this inflation in food prices."