Toy prices prevent ‘Santa Claus’ from visiting Lebanese children amid economic crisis

Lebanon Economy
2021-12-08 | 09:16
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Toy prices prevent ‘Santa Claus’ from visiting Lebanese children amid economic crisis
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6min
Toy prices prevent ‘Santa Claus’ from visiting Lebanese children amid economic crisis
Christmas brings joy to children who are filled with excitement in many countries and expect to get a gift from Santa Claus.

But in Lebanon, the worsening economy separates the Lebanese Christians from the celebration of Christmas in which prayers are held in churches, families gather, gifts are given to children, and streets and homes are filled with decorations and lights.

The tiny Arab country has witnessed a severe economic crisis in the past two years that has left it on the verge of financial collapse.

Last September, the United Nations announced that 74 percent of the population of Lebanon suffer from poverty in 2021.

Despite the fact some Christian families began preparing their homes for the occasion, by placing and decorating a Christmas tree.

But Santa Claus will not be able to enter all homes in Lebanon and provide the gift that every child dreams of.

The economic crisis has greatly affected the purchasing power of the parents, who hardly secure their daily living and are unable to buy even a single gift for their children during the feast.

Jocelyn, who is an employee and a mother told Anadolu Agency Video News (AAVN) on Tuesday (Dec. 7) that children's joy is not complete during the holiday if there is no gift, so it is a must.

“The gift is necessary for children, but today there are more urgent and more important matters than gifts, such as food, drink, medicine, and education,” she said.

A report of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) released last November, stated that “Faced with skyrocketing inflation, rising poverty, and increasingly scarce jobs, 40 percent of families had to sell household items (up from 33 percent). Seven in ten had to buy food on credit or borrow money to afford food, as compared with six in ten in April," in Lebanon.

The report also says more than 8 in 10 people live in poverty and 34 percent in extreme poverty in the Middle Eastern country.

Fadi Qashoua, one of Lebanon's major merchants, explained that the prices of toys did not rise in foreign currency, but rose with the national currency.

In other words, the price of a particular game is still $5, but after the collapse of the Lebanese pound against the US currency, the price rose. In the past, $5 was equivalent to 7,500 Lebanese pounds, but today it exceeds 100,000.

Qashoua stated that the prices of toys have risen 10 times more than in previous years in Lebanon.

He said the merchants moving towards importing low-priced games, meaning those whose price ranges between 4 and 6 dollars while people started to turn to the lowest priced products after the depreciation of the Lebanese currency and the onset of the economic crisis.

“Purchasing power has fallen to an unprecedented level,” Qashoua noted.

He believes that 85 percent of people buy cheap games, and 15 percent of them are still able to buy high-priced games.

“I've been trading since 1987. We have not experienced economic hardship as hard as this year's economic crisis,” added Qashoua.

Usually, preparations for Christmas start in mid-November of each year, when store shelves sparkle with decorations and lights, and a wider “variety” of toys is displayed, in preparation for the start of customers flocking to choose Christmas gifts for their children.

The parents' interest in preparing gifts started in Lebanon, but timidly because the social burdens dominate the purchase of gifts.

The upcoming Christmas in the country will not be like any of the holidays in previous years, due to the economic crisis that is hitting the country. However, parents and owners of individual initiatives are struggling and working hard to make children smile during the holiday period.

The Lebanese journalist Ricardo Chidiac launched an initiative to provide gifts for children on Christmas with the participation of a group of young men and women from different fields and specializations.

The initiative aims to give children hope in Lebanon, and to secure a gift for each child during the feast, as a moral step, because the child does not wait for more than a gift.

For more than two years, Lebanon has been suffering from a severe economic crisis, classified by the World Bank as one of the three worst economic crises in the world, which led to a record drop in the value of the local currency against the dollar, reflected in shortages of fuel, medicines, and other basic commodities.

The value of the lira against the dollar has been stable for more than a quarter of a century at the limits of 1510, but it was shaken for the first time in December 2019 and began to deteriorate gradually until it reached 25,000 finally.
 
 
 
 
REUTERS
 
 
 
 

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