The governor of the Banque du Liban Riad Salamé announced the start of the sale of foreign currencies via commercial banks at the rate of the Sayrafa electronic platform from this Monday, while some observers are still wondering about the real possibilities of institutions banks to carry out such an operation.

As a reminder, the central bank set up this Sayrafa platform last June.

In addition to the Banque du Liban, licensed foreign exchange agents and commercial banks participate, unlike the previous platform also called Sayrafa set up in June 2020.

If, according to the BdL, this platform takes into account supply and demand, observers note that the parity of the Lebanese pound against foreign currencies does not change contrary to the promises of the Bank of Lebanon. It has actually not changed since its launch, with an exchange rate still at 12,000 LL / USD.

However, this exchange rate further increases the money supply, which now exceeds 40 trillion Lebanese pounds, which has risen sharply since 2018, and which is an important factor in the loss of value of the local currency.

However, there are reports of anomalies concerning the transactions carried out by official stockbrokers which are not sufficient to pay the operational expenses of the latter while a circular obliges them to record all purchase and exchange transactions. sales made. The latter’s file could thus be handed over to the competent authorities as early as next week.

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