The dollar exchange rate in the black market almost hit 50,000 LBP.
A rise was recorded last week from about 45,000 Monday to 49,300 LBP on Saturday after Banque du Liban's decision at the beginning of last week to stop merchants from benefiting from banking operations and limit Sayrafa platform operations to individuals only while imposing a ceiling for operations, which is 100 million LBP per month, which created confusion in the market and thus several banks were unable to work with the platform.
Will the Sayrafa platform be reactivated?
On Monday, the Central Council of Banque du Liban will hold an extraordinary meeting to discuss this issue and the measures that can be taken to curb the increase in the rate of the dollar price on the black market.
Banking sources indicate that the Central Bank will not stop Sayrafa's operation, nor will it prevent citizens from benefiting from buying dollars on the platform, which has become a kind of means for them to live at a time when there are no signs of resolving the crisis by officials.
According to these sources, it is likely that banks will be asked to reactivate work on the platform, adding that there will be specific conditions to mitigate the speculative operations that are taking place through studying customer files before granting approvals.
As for merchants, it is expected that they will continue to be prevented from benefiting from the fact that they are pricing products at the parallel market price.
Just as the media leaked information on the upcoming BDL's Central Council session on Monday, the dollar price in the market began to decline, and it fell by about 800 LBP.
It is a decline that speculators benefit from in the first place to buy dollars from citizens at a lower price and then sell at a higher price. As long as patching is in progress, there is no radical solution to the crisis to curb the increase in the exchange rate.