The governor of the institution, Riyadh Salameh, again decided to intervene in the market to lower the informal exchange rate and increase operations on the official Sayrafa platform from 45,400 to 70,000.
The measure caps individuals at £1bn per month for each account and £10bn for businesses, excluding fuel importers.
In this sense, the company maintains the payment of public sector pensions for the month of February at the exchange rate of 45,400 registered yesterday, while banks stop buying dollars for their customers with a maximum of 300 per month pending a new announcement.
According to Al-Akhbar newspaper, Salameh resorts to this type of intervention to inject dollars into the market whenever the exchange rate makes large and rapid jumps.
The value of the dollar jumped from 50,000 pounds to 70,000 in two months and 90,000 yesterday, a rise of more than 100 percent to complicate citizens’ living conditions due to falling purchasing power.
With entry in March, the Commerce Ministry introduced pricing in dollars in commercial stores to protect residents from the chaos and randomness of costs pursued by traders and supermarket owners, according to sector head Amin Salaam.
At the same time, the financial portfolio decided to increase the tariff dollar from 15,000 to 45,000, a month after abandoning the 1,500 rate used since 1997.
Figures from the World Bank indicate that Lebanon ranks third in the world and first in Arab countries in terms of food price inflation, while reports from United Nations agencies put 80 percent of its population below the poverty line.
jf/yma