Lebanon’s financial system has been in paralysis since 2019 with the Lebanese Pound having lost nearly 95% of its value
Lebanon’s financial system has been in paralysis since 2019 with the Lebanese Pound having lost nearly 95% of its value
The story so far: On Friday, September 16, five incidents of bank robbery attempts, not the first of their kind, were reported in Lebanon. One of the incidents involved an armed man, identified as Abed Soubra, demanding to withdraw $300,000 cash from BLOM bank in the capital Beirut. Soubra later handed his gun to security but stayed locked in the bank till evening.
Attempts such as this one, however, were by individuals seeking access to their own savings. Multiple such incidents, often involving armed individuals, have been reported since the start of this year and are a manifestation of Lebanon’s unrelenting economic crisis that began in 2019. The economic downturn in the already politically unstable country has been compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 blast at the port of the Lebanese capital Beirut.
–
How bad is the economic crisis in Lebanon?
The World Bank has described Lebanon’s crisis as one of the “top 10, possibly top three most severe economic collapses worldwide since the 1850s”.
The dollar accounts along with blanket withdrawals of Lebanese depositors have virtually been frozen in the country’s banks since the onset of the crisis in…
