Lebanon’s pound slumps to all time low of 100,000 to US dollar

The Lebanese pound is trading at 100,000 to the dollar, reports AFP.

It is an historic low for Lebanon and a sign of the deepening financial woes in the region.

Lebanon-US exchange

The Lebanese pound is pegged to the US dollar. Between 1997 and January of this year, the official exchange rate was LBP1,507.5 to $1.

However, at the start of this year the Central Bank reset the peg to LBP15,000.

The unofficial market exchange rate, used by the majority of Lebanese people, is now trading at LBP100,000.

It is tumbling from the already perilous LBP60,000 to the dollar recorded in January.

The country has been operating with a caretaker government since November of last year and has no current president.

The LBP100,000 note is the largest banknote and was equivalent of around $67 before the economic crisis began. It reached the long-expected landmark of $1 on Tuesday.

As Lebanon becomes increasingly reliant on the dollar, with banknotes such as the LBP1,000 and LBP5,000 becoming increasingly worthless, political tensions continue to escalate.

Lebanese banks have imposed restrictions on withdrawals, leaving investors locked out of their own savings and unable to access money.

Since theCovid-19 pandemic has further worsened the situation some Lebanese people have entered banks and staged armed protests as they demand access to their own funds.

With the rise in bank theft from depositors storming banks the Lebanese army were last year given training in how to respond to bank thefts and hostage situations.