Lebanese Are Gripped by Worry as Economic Meltdown Speeds up

Lebanese Are Gripped by Worry as Economic Meltdown Speeds up

People pass next of a woman, center, who is sits on the ground with her daughter begging on Beirut's commercial Hamra Street, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 16, 2021. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Shops closing, companies going bankrupt and pharmacies with shelves emptying “” in Lebanon these days, fistfights erupt in supermarkets as shoppers scramble to get to subsidized powdered milk, rice and cooking oil.

Like almost every other Lebanese, Nisrine Taha's life has been turned upside down in the past year under the weight of the country's crushing economic crisis. Anxiety for the future is eating at her.

Five months ago, she was laid off from her job at the real estate company where she had worked for years. Her daughter, who is 21, cannot find work, forcing the family to rely on her husband's monthly salary which has lost 90% of its value because of the collapse of the national currency.

The family hasn't been able to pay rent for seven months, and Taha worries their landlord's patience won't last forever. As the price of meat and chicken soared beyond their means, they changed their diet.

"Everything is very expensive,“ she said.

Taha's family is among hundreds of thousands of lower income and middle