The Lebanese currency hits record low today on the black market dollar, oscillating between 11,500 and 11,600 pounds per dollar. It rose significantly at noon on Saturday, recording 12,400 pounds per dollar, at its highest price in Lebanon’s history.
The Lebanese currency has lost more than 85% of its value due to the country’s financial crisis.

Moneychangers closed their stores, while many shops refused to deal in the lira, fearing a further collapse in its value, while being keen on dealing in dollars. Thousands demonstrated in downtown Beirut to demand a new independent government to pull Lebanon out of its deepening crisis amid growing frustration with the country’s financial meltdown.

The economic crisis in Lebanon is the biggest threat to its stability since the 1975-1990 civil war. The economic situation in Lebanon has entered a dark journey with an unknown destination, with the dollar exchange rate continuing to rise to unprecedented levels.

The financial crisis in Lebanon, which broke by the end of 2019, caused tens of thousands of people to lose their jobs, freeze bank accounts, and plunged many into poverty and hunger. The exchange rate of the dollar at the Central Bank of Lebanon remained at 1507.5 pounds per one dollar, allocated to basic commodities only.

Lebanese banks set the price of 3,850 pounds to the dollar, after they withdrew the dollar currency from small depositors a while ago, a law that remains in force till present. The Syndicate of Money Changers in Lebanon fixed the exchange rate of the dollar against the Lebanese pound with a margin oscillating between  3,850 pounds for purchase and 3,900 pounds for sale, as a maximum.