A demonstration of depositors is currently taking place in front of the headquarters of the Banque du Liban. It follows another demonstration which took place at the beginning of the same morning, which saw protesters breaking into the branch of the Banque Libano-Suisse on the same rue de Hamra.
As a reminder, the Banque du Liban is regularly accused of working not in the interests of depositors but in favor of that of the Association of Banks in Lebanon, which unilaterally established capital controls in November 2019. Since then, the various circulars of the Banque du Liban and even the laws adopted, establishing for example a student dollar, have not been respected by banking establishments.
This demonstration takes place a few days before the entry into force of circular 158 which should technically allow the withdrawal of 400 USD in dollars and the equivalent of 400 USD in Lebanese pounds at the rate of 12,000 LL / USD. This circular is however at the origin of the rise in recent days of the dollar against the Lebanese pound, some banks not having sufficient liquidity to respect this new legislation and trying to obtain supplies from the black market.
In addition, the Banque du Liban is also at the origin of the increase in the money supply with the printing of large quantities of Lebanese pounds over the past 2 years, in an attempt to compensate for the impossibility of having sufficient liquidity. . However, this measure is the source of significant inflation during this same period and is the main factor that led to a de facto devaluation of the Lebanese pound against the dollar. This has thus lost more than 90% of its value against the local currency, causing 75% of the population to now live below the poverty line.
