Hundreds Protest Lebanese Currency Crash
https://www.oann.com/hundreds-protest-lebanese-currency-crash/
Hundreds of Lebanese citizens are protesting as the country’s currency rate takes a deep plunge due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Residents continued their third consecutive day of rallies in Beirut as the value of the Lebanese pound decreased significantly against the U.S. dollar.
Since 1990s, 1,500 Lebanese pounds equaled to one U.S. dollar, but this week it took a sharp increase. It reached up to 3,700 pounds to the dollar. On Thursday, residents crowded around money transfer offices as it marked the last day they would be allowed to dispense dollars to customers following new central bank rules.
The rules will require the banks to convert cash withdrawals from foreign currency bank accounts to the local currency at market price in an effort to lessen the demand of the U.S. dollar.
“There must be one price which is the one amount from the government, so it is about a game which is not focused or centralized between the banking, central bank, the politicians and the rights of the people,” said local resident Yousef Abd Al. “So those four stakeholders, actually there is no governance in between, and that will lead actually to what you are seeing now.”
Meanwhile, residents nationwide who have depended on a stable national currency feel they will be losing money because of the new exchange rate.
“We are here to tell them that the revolution will stay, the revolution will not die and the revolution will go on in all parts of Lebanon,” said protester Hassan Makahal. “You are putting us in trouble, you are taking the coronavirus as a pretext.”
Anti-government protests has been ongoing since October as the country has seen its worst economic crisis since the Lebanese Civil War in 1975.