According to local media reports, on the 26th local time, the Lebanese Depositors Association organized a demonstration from downtown Beirut to the central bank headquarters building to demand that US dollar deposits be recovered from banks.
On the same day, Beirut port workers held a strike to protest against the calculation of remuneration at the official exchange rate of 1:1500.
Earlier, some student groups held a demonstration in central Beirut to protest against the inability of Lebanese overseas students to obtain domestic remittances, as well as against the increase in tuition fees and against the adoption of a 1:3,900 US dollar exchange rate against the Lebanese pound in universities.
Recently, Riad Salame, Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon, said that the era of fixed exchange rates between the Lebanese pound and the US dollar was over, but the implementation of a floating exchange rate was premised on a loan agreement with the IMF.
In recent years, Lebanon’s economy has continued to be sluggish, public debt is high, and unemployment remains high. The coronavirus epidemic and the bombing of the port of Beirut have made Lebanon’s economy worse.
The UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia released a report earlier this month that Lebanon’s economy contracted by 20% in 2020. On the 11th of this month, Lebanon’s Central Bureau of Statistics released data showing that the country’s inflation rate in 2020 was 84.9%.
Because of the shortage of US dollars, Lebanese banks have been forced to close down many times and impose strict restrictions on the withdrawal and transfer of US dollars, which has damaged the interests of depositors and caused a series of social problems such as material shortages and rising prices.
