Dollar’s official exchange rate to become LBP 15,000 as of November

Dollar’s official exchange rate to become LBP 15,000 as of November

Lebanon will weaken its official exchange rate for the first time in more than two decades, a central bank official said, as part of efforts to tackle a crippling financial crisis.

The exchange rate has been officially pegged at 1,507 Lebanese pounds to the dollar since 1997, but will drop to 15,000 to the greenback at the end of October, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The pound, however, traded at more than double that value on the black market on Wednesday, selling for more than 38,400 to the dollar -- nearing its all-time record low -- money exchangers said.

Lebanon's local currency has lost more than 95 percent of its value on the black market since the 2019 onset of Lebanon's financial crisis, branded by the World Bank as one of the planet's worst in modern times.

The decision to shift the peg follows a visit last week by a delegation from the International Monetary Fund, which is pressing Lebanon to implement reforms to unlock billions of dollars in loans.

The unification of several central bank exchange rates and the establishment of a credible and transparent monetary and exchange rate system are among the IMF's demands.

However, analysts expressed skepticism that the shift