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BEIRUT (AP) — Four years after Lebanon’s historic meltdown began, the small nation is still facing “enormous economic challenges,” with a collapsed banking sector, eroding public services, deteriorating infrastructure and worsening poverty, the International Monetary Fund warned Friday. Since the financial meltdown began in October 2019, the country’s political class — blamed for decades of corruption and mismanagement — has been resisting economic and financial reforms requested by the international community. Lebanon started talks with the IMF in 2020 to try reach an approved bailout, but since reaching a preliminary agreement with the IMF last year, the country's leaders have been reluctant to implement needed reforms. “Lebanon has not undertaken the urgently needed reforms, and this will weigh on the economy for years to come,” the IMF statement said. The IMF said that all official exchange rates should be unified at the market exchange rate.

Persons: Sayrafa, Wassim Mansouri, — Organizations: International Monetary Fund, IMF Locations: BEIRUT, Lebanon

☆ Lebanon's central bank to phase out Sayrafa exchange platform
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Beirut, July 17 (Reuters) - Lebanon’s central bank will decommission the controversial exchange platform known as Sayrafa after governor Riad Salameh’s 30-year tenure ends this month, one of the institution’s vice governors told Reuters on Monday. "It's about the way Sayrafa will be phased out," he said. The exchange platform was set up in May 2021, 18 months into Lebanon's economic meltdown. Chahine said the platform would be replaced by an "exchange rate determination electronic platform" set up through international providers. The World Bank described it as one of the "weak, and often counterproductive, policies implemented by the Lebanese authorities since the outbreak of the crisis."

Persons: Riad Salameh’s, Salim Chahine, Sayrafa, Chahine, Maya Gebeily, Josie Kao Organizations: Reuters, International Monetary Fund, Bloomberg, World Bank, Thomson Locations: Beirut, Sayrafa's

☆ IMF: Lebanon in 'very dangerous situation' with reforms stalled
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

BEIRUT, March 23 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund warned on Thursday that Lebanon was in a very dangerous situation a year after it committed to reforms it has failed to implement, and the IMF urged the government to halt borrowing from the central bank. "One would have expected more in terms of implementation and approval of legislation" related to reforms, he said, noting "very slow" progress. "Lebanon is in a very dangerous situation," he added, in unusually frank remarks. Still, Rigo said that the IMF would "never walk away" from helping a member country and there was no deadline for Lebanon to implement the reforms. Rigo said that Lebanon should move towards a market-determined exchange rate, rather than maintaining multiple rates including the central bank's Sayrafa exchange rate, which is not set by market forces.

☆ Lebanon to sell unlimited US dollars to prop up collapsing pound
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BEIRUT, March 21 (Reuters) - Lebanon's central bank will begin selling unlimited amounts of U.S. dollars in a bid to halt the spiralling devaluation of the Lebanese pound, Governor Riad Salameh said on Tuesday. Salameh set a new rate for Sayrafa, the central bank's exchange platform, at 90,000 Lebanese pounds per dollar on Tuesday. The pound has lost more than 98% of its value since the economy began unravelling in 2019. Tuesday's move came with the approval of the caretaker premier and caretaker finance minister and aimed to "limit the devaluation of the Lebanese pound in the parallel market," Salameh said. The pound began rising in value on the parallel market immediately after the decision was announced.

BEIRUT, Jan 31 (Reuters) - Lebanon will adopt a new official exchange rate of 15,000 pounds per U.S. dollar on Feb. 1, central bank governor Riad Salameh said, marking a 90% devaluation from its current official rate that has remained unchanged for 25 years. The pound has lost some 97% of its value since it began to split from the 1,507 rate in 2019. In order to ease the impact of this shift, banks would be given five years "to reconstitute the losses due to the devaluation," he said. Several rates remain, including the official rate, the central bank's Sayrafa exchange platform rate which currently stands at 38,000 pounds per U.S. dollar, and the parallel market rate. While capital controls have never been formally imposed in Lebanon, banks since 2019 have imposed their own controls, severely limiting withdrawals in dollars and Lebanese pounds.

☆ Lebanon central bank to use forex rate of 15,000 pounds per dollar as of Feb 1
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BEIRUT, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Lebanon's central bank will adopt an exchange rate of 15,000 Lebanese pounds per U.S. dollar as of Feb. 1 as part of a process to unify the country's multiple exchange-rate system, Lebanese central bank governor Riad Salameh said on Monday. The parallel market exchange rate was hovering at around 39,000 pounds per dollar on Monday. Salameh said the rate for withdrawals governed by central bank circulars would be brought up to 15,000 pounds as of Feb. 1. The central bank would then have just two rates, Salameh said: 15,000, and a rate set by the central bank's Sayrafa exchange platform, which sat at around 30,000 pounds per dollar on Monday. Depositors have paid a big price, and have been mostly unable to access dollar savings or forced to make withdrawals in pounds at unfavourable rates.

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