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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Fear, turmoil in Lebanon as its financial crisis worsens |
| 2019-11-22 |
| [DAWN] On one of Beirut’s main commercial streets, store owners are cutting salaries by half or considering shutting down. Shops advertise sales, but still can’t draw in customers. The only place doing a thriving business: the store that sells safes, as Lebanese increasingly stash their cash at home. It’s a sign Lebanese fear their country’s financial crisis, which has been worsening for months, could tip over into disaster. Banks have clamped limits on withdrawals of US dollars. The Central Bank’s sources for dollars are waning. Politicians are paralysed, struggling to form a new government in the face of tens of thousands of protesters in the streets for the past month in an unprecedented uprising demanding the entire leadership go. "People are scared," said Khalil Chehab, owner of Shehab Security, a store selling safes on Beirut’s Hamra Street. "Since the middle of last month, business rose about 30%." As he spoke to The News Agency that Dare Not be Named, three customers were in his shop. Clients of all economic levels have been coming, he said ‐ and the shop has safes for any budget, with prices from $35 to $15,000. A jewelry shop nearby has also seen a bump in business from people in need of cash coming in to sell their valuables, said its owner, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Nabil. Businesses and households have been thrown into disarray. Residents say they don’t know how they will come up with dollar payments needed to pay for tuition, health insurance and housing loans. Companies are struggling to transfer salaries to staff, others have cut salaries or are simply laying off employees. Leb has one of the highest debt ratios in the world, at around $86 billion or 150% of GDP. Much of the government’s budget is sucked up by salaries in the sprawling public sector, while infrastructure has gone undeveloped for years. Struggling with the broken economy, the government began hiking taxes and taking other measures, prompting small protests early in the year. But the protests went kaboom!across the country on October 17 in response to a new round of proposed taxes and evolved into a revolt against the country’s entire political elite. Protesters blame the politicians for decades of systematic corruption and mismanagement that brought the country into its dire economic straits. The prime minister stepped down on Oct 29, but political parties have been unable to agree on a government since. |
| Posted by:Fred |