Prime Minister Hassan Diab chaired on Friday a financial meeting attended by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Zeina Akar, Minister of Environment and Administrative Development Demianos Kattar, Minister of Finance Ghazi Wazni, Minister of Economy and Trade Raoul Nehme, Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, Head of the General Security Gen. Abbas Ibrahim, Director General of the Ministry of Finance Alain Bifani, Central Bank’s vice governors Wassim Mansouri, Bachir Yakzan, Salim Chahine and Alexander Mouradian, PM Advisors Khodor Taleb and George Chalhoub, in addition to the vice-president of the Association of Banks, Nadim Qassar, Secretary Walid Raphael, Treasurer Tanal Al-Sabbah, and Bank of Beirut’s Financial Director Roger Dagher.
Discussions featured high on the financial and economic situation.
At the end of the meeting, a joint press conference was organized by BdL Governor, Minister Nehme, and General Ibrahim.
Salameh:
Central Bank of Lebanon today launched the electronic platform to organize trading between money changers on currency rates. All legal money changers will be added to this platform. At the beginning of tonight’s meeting, it was said that more than USD 8 million were bought and sold at the rate of LPB 3850 to 3900. This platform will be further activated, and will constitute the initial reference to the foreign currency exchange market, notably between US Dollar and the Lebanese Pound.
Banks can also join this platform.
However, the official peg remains at LBP 1515, because this is helping normalize the fuel, medicine, food products, and flour prices.
The BdL does not deal with the black market, there is no possibility, just like anywhere else in the world, for approaching this market.
The light is being shed on the black market more than it actually deserves to, because the flow within this market is low and unorganized, and anyone can place the price they wish, and then post it on social media platforms.
BdL’s aim is to bring together most exchange markets, which constitute almost 90%, be organized markets, whether through the banks or the legal money changers.
Nehme:
We are about to implement a plan, as of next week, to lower the burden of the exchange rate on the citizens.
We will therefore broaden the list of essential food and non-food products we are supporting.
More than 200 items will be supported at the exchange rate of LBP 3200, and we will make sure that the customers are aware the imported products’ prices, just as we did with the essential products by publishing their prices on our website. Every citizen will then have access to this information and learn about the items the government is supporting and their prices.
We remain at the citizens’ disposal and are ready to answer their calls, to take necessary measures to stop this greed.
This list will allow us to cover between 70 and 80% of the citizens’ needs, with the fuel and diesel, bread and medicine, to increase their purchasing power. This mechanism will be implemented as of the end of next week.
Ibrahim:
The General Security is concerned with the black market, and not by fixing the exchange rate. We have launched an operations room that is receiving complaints from citizens. We are also launching patrols to fight black markets.
We have so far arrested more than 150 legal and illegal money changers who are not respecting the official exchange rate of the Money Changers Syndicate, under the directives of BdL Governor.
As for the food basket, we will launch patrols for the customers’ protection, and make sure that all supermarkets are respecting the prices and the benefit percentages as dictated by the Ministry.
We will work on a mechanism in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy, to confirm that the imported and supported products are actually being sold and distributed and rather than stored by the traders who wish to sell them at a higher rate.