Lebanese Central Bank stops subsidizing fuel
The Lebanese central bank is opting out of providing fuel purchase subsidies, further plunging Lebanon into an energy crisis, which has become too expensive for the average citizen.
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Cars stand in line at a gas station as they wait to fuel up in Damour, Lebanon, June 25, 2021 (Reuters)
The Lebanese central bank (BDL) has completely halted its fuel purchases subsidies, leading to a hike in gasoline prices, the head of the gas station owners' union, George Brax, said Monday.
Beirut started in the late summer of 2021 enacting a subsidies phase out, suspending gasoline subsidies under the pretext that the central bank's funds no longer sufficed to keep fuel prices low.
"The central bank finally stopped subsidizing gasoline and set the settlement rate at 35,250 liras per dollar," Brax said, as quoted by the newspaper Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.
BDL's official rate was about 1,500 Lebanese pounds per US dollar.
Monday saw the price of 95-octane gasoline and 98-octane gasoline increasing by 20,000 Lebanese pounds to 638,000 and 653,000 Lebanese pounds per can (20 liters), respectively. The price of diesel, on the other hand, barely decreased, falling by 1,000 LBP and reaching 790,000 LBP per can.
Ahead of the Lebanese financial and economic crisis in 2019, a can of gasoline was around 25,000 Lebanese pounds.
Lebanon has been plunged into a deep financial and economic crisis for nearly two years, which paralyzed the country and mired more than 70% of its population into poverty.
The Lebanese banking system has completely collapsed, with the national currency depreciating more than 20 times against the USD.
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The World Bank warned that Lebanon was enduring an economic depression that might rank among the top 10 worst economic crises in the world since the mid-nineteenth century, in the absence of any solution on the horizon that would get it out of a reluctance reality exacerbated by political paralysis.
The small Mediterranean country defaulted on its debt in 2020; the Lebanese currency has lost around 90% of its value on the black market, and the UN now considers four in five Lebanese to be living under the poverty line.
