Rising public fury in Lebanon with country on the abyss

  • Date: 18-Mar-2021
  • Source: Arab Weekly
  • Sector:Economy
  • Country:Lebanon
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Rising public fury in Lebanon with country on the abyss

BEIRUT--Lebanon's worst economic downturn in decades has pushed a battered population to the brink with no solution in sight as the country's barons wrangle over forming a new government.

In the absence of a fully functioning executive that can spearhead reforms and provide the most basic of services, is a rescue on the horizon?

Conditions in Lebanon have deteriorated since the protesters first took to the streets in 2019 demanding the removal of a political leadership deemed to be both inept and corrupt.

The coronavirus pandemic and the powerful August explosion in Beirut port, which disfigured the heart of the capital and prompted prime minister Hassan Diab to resign, have aggravated the country's economic woes.

The Lebanese pound, officially pegged at 1,507 to the greenback since 1997, has lost almost 90 percent of its value on the black market. Scattered protests broke out on Tuesday in different parts of the country after the Lebanese pound hit a new record low, trading at 15,000 to the dollar on the black market

The depreciation has sparked soaring inflation and chipped away at the purchasing power of a population denied full access to their savings by stringent banking controls.

This has prompted a new wave of protests across Lebanon