The Lebanese Pound is gaining ground, with an exchange rate of 11,600 LL / USD on the black market, due to rumors of significant progress being made in the process of forming the next government. The local currency is therefore back below the threshold of 12,000 LL / USD, a gain of almost 1,000 LL compared to yesterday.
For the time being, the speaker of parliament Nabih Berri would try to convince Saad Hariri to form a leftist government 24 members without the right of veto for any party.
In addition, the daily The Daily Star indicates that the governor of the Banque du Liban would have refused to continue the subsidy program for the purchase of basic necessities requiring the outgoing government to put in place a plan to restructure it. here with the introduction of prepaid cards intended for the most vulnerable people. Riad Salamé would have thus informed the outgoing Minister of Finance Ghazi Wazni.
Also Riad Salamé would have informed the outgoing government that he would only have 1.5 billion dollars available for this program, composed of 1 billion dollars in cash and the equivalent of 650 million dollars in Eurobonds and were previously evaluated at 5.5 billion dollars. dollars.
As a reminder, the cost of the subsidy program was 700 million dollars during the period preceding the current crisis. It has fallen to $ 500 million currently, or $ 6 billion per year, of which $ 3 billion is for fuels alone. Questions also relate to the reality of the 16 billion dollars of gross reserves of the Bank of Lebanon mainly constituted by the sums available by the 15% of minimum reserves on bank deposits.
The establishment of a prepaid card program would however depend on the approval by the parliament since it would then be an annual loan for an amount of one billion dollars from the Bank of Lebanon against 6 currently. . This program would be aimed at 800,000 families now.
