SAWT BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL

| 29 March 2024, Friday |

Black market dollar’s dreadful rates threaten Lebanese citizens’ livelihood

The dreadful black market dollar rates continue to set new highs, particularly when it comes to fuel pricing after subsidies were lifted.

What is happening is astonishing; the price of a fuel tank has surpassed 300,000 Lebanese pounds, and the price of a diesel canister will soon reach that level.

Following the increase of gasoline and diesel prices, Lebanese citizens wonder if they will be hit even harder when they head to supermarkets to buy vegetables and fruits, or when they go to the butcher to buy meat, at a time when they can barely get an ounce of meat and the bare minimum of vegetables for their cooking.

Farmers are also affected by the distress, as Ibrahim Tarshishi, the head of the Bekaa Farmers Association, told Al-Nahar.

“What is occurring is terrible and intolerable, we live between two dilemmas,” Tarchichi remarked. Where do we begin and end, and this produces instability and serenity for the farmer, and those who have invested in agriculture may soon stop doing so.”

“We don’t know where we’re heading, and if we’ll continue with our work or not,” Gabi Dekermejian, the Head of the Meat Importers Syndicate, said in an interview with “Al-Nahar,” “we and the Lebanese are no longer willing to withstand the situation.”

After various varieties of food have been removed off his table, the Lebanese is now in risk of being unable to find or afford what was once considered the cheapest type of food!

    Source:
  • Sawt Beirut International