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Lebanon on Brink of Collapse
April 6, 2021 |
Emile Nakhleh
The Newsletter
Cipher Brief Expert Emile Nakhleh is a retired CIA Senior Intelligence Service Officer and founding director of the CIA’s Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program Office. Nakhleh is currently a Research Professor and Director of the Global and National Security Policy Institute at the University of New Mexico.
EXPERT OPINION Lebanon is collapsing economically, politically, and socially. The government is paralyzed, and institutions are in disarray.
Lebanon on Brink of Collapse thecipherbrief.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thecipherbrief.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By Reuters Staff
4 Min Read
BEIRUT, April 2 (Reuters) - Lebanon will run out of money to fund basic imports by the end of May and delays in launching a plan to reduce subsidies are costing $500 million a month, the caretaker finance minister, Ghazi Wazni, said.
As Lebanon’s economy crumbles, the central bank has asked the caretaker cabinet to decide how to gradually lift subsidies to ration remaining foreign currency reserves, Wazni told Reuters on Thursday.
“The government must speed this up. The cost of wasting time is very high. With every delay, it becomes higher,” he said.
Lebanon’s financial meltdown is fuelling hunger and unrest in the country’s gravest crisis since its 1975-1990 civil war.
BEIRUT: The dollar exchange rate in the Lebanese black market has lost its ceiling, as the pound jumped on Tuesday from 13,000 to 15,000 against the US dollar. Angry protestors took to the streets and forced owners of grocery stores to close, while others voluntarily decided to close and announced that “they will remain closed until further notice and until all this dollar