The black-market exchange rate of the US dollar versus the Lebanese pound fell as banks resumed operations after a week-long strike. Today, Monday, the dollar hit 37,300 Lebanese pounds for sale and 37,200 Lebanese pounds for purchase.

In this context, economic expert Patrick Mardini stated in a press interview that “there is no ceiling for the rise of the dollar and no bottom for the collapse of the Lebanese currency as long as we continue to take the same approach that we were taking before the crisis and three years ago we did not make any reforms, so the dollar will continue to rise.” “The dollar will climb,” Mardini observed, “but it will not jump to reach insane rates.”

Expenditures are greater than revenues, and these increased expenditures are financed by increasing the monetary mass, that is, through the Central Bank, which grants the government funds to be able to continue spending, and these Lebanese pounds provided by the bank to the government turn into a demand for the dollar, and consequently, caused an increase in the exchange rate.”