In Lebanon, protests began again. The reason was the record drop in the exchange rate of the national currency: up to 10 thousand Lebanese pounds per dollar. This led to a sharp increase in food and gasoline prices.
Street activists who blocked traffic on the streets of Beirut, Tripoli, Saida and other cities in Lebanon on Wednesday are demanding that the authorities take urgent measures to curb price increases after the collapse of the national currency – the Lebanese pound.
According to TASS, in the center of the Lebanese capital, the passage is closed on the Riad Solha square near the government palace and near the Muhammad al-Amin mosque, where several dozen demonstrators gathered.
The city is plunged into darkness due to power outages, so protesters are burning bonfires to keep warm and light up the street.
“The Lebanese do not want to go back to the Stone Age, so they go out and demand that the authorities do at least something to improve the economic situation in the country,” one of the residents of the Lebanese capital told TASS. According to him, due to the depreciation of the Lebanese pound, he now receives about $ 70, i.e. 10 times less than a year ago.
Lebanese President Michel Aoun issued a statement in which he called the “legitimate and just protests of the population.”
The rise in prices for food, gasoline and essential goods in Lebanon was caused by a record fall in the exchange rate of the national currency – to 10,000 Lebanese pounds per dollar. According to the press service of the head of state, President Aoun demanded from the Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon Riad Salam “to explain to the public what caused the collapse of the national currency.”
Aoun also called on the head of the Central Bank to submit the results of the audit to the Prosecutor General’s Office, “in order to bring to justice those involved in currency manipulation.