Omar Al-Rassi, "Akhbar Al-Yawm"

After that Banque du Liban has issued Interim Circular No. 607 addressed to banks, banks welcome crowds of people every day to take advantage of this circular which modified the circular relating to exceptional procedures for withdrawing cash, attached to the basic circular n° 161, ending 01/31/2022, also being renewable. It is said that there are those who withdraw money from banks according to the dollar exchange rate set by Sayrafa (at the rate of 25000L.L.), in order to resell them on the black market according to the fixed price in the applications (which today recorded 28 thousand).

And on the basis of circular 161 issued by the Central Council of the Banque du Liban, a clause has been added which gives banks the right to increase the quota they are entitled to withdraw monthly in Lebanese pounds, and they now take them in American dollars according to the price of the Sayrafa platform, that is to say to buy paper dollars from the Bank of Lebanon against Lebanese pounds according to the exchange rate, without specific ceiling.

It would seem, according to a banking source, that bank employees are in the front rows and receive "blows" and are on the lookout for problems, as people get angry, not yet having understood how to benefit from the circulars, and banks are not ready to receive this number of customers, pointing out that today the dollar in the parallel market is 28,000, and according to the Sayrafa platform, it is around 25,000 Lebanese Lira per dollar , and no one knows whether the exchange rate will fall or continue to rise to reach the same market price.

In this regard, Ghobril considers that the reforms are the responsibility of the government, and the procedures of the Banque du Liban did not correspond to the procedures of the executive authority, which, moreover, does not coordinate with the financial authority. Thus, the recent circular issued by the Banque du Liban results from the inability of the government to hold a session to take the necessary measures.

And he concludes by saying: All the measures are objective and temporary, and the solution is to put in place a mechanism for unifying the exchange rate in the stimulus plan, which the IMF expects from the Lebanese authorities.