The price of large bread bundles increased by more than 20 percent, while the cost of small bread bundles rose by almost 17 percent. (Credit: AFP)
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The per-gram price of bread bundles rose again as inflation continues to skyrocket. The Economy Ministry announced that bakeries will now sell 910-gram bundles for LL3,000, a 20.07 percent increase per gram, and 395-gram bundles for LL2,000, a 16.8 percent rise. The prices at shops are LL250 higher. This was the seventh time this year the ministry raised the cost of subsidized bread, as the country’s various crises are intensifying. Year-over-year inflation figures have soared by more than 100 percent for the 11th month straight, government data released yesterday show. The prices of food, household goods and expenditures and clothes all registered triple-digit price increases compared with a year ago.
The waste management company Ramco resumed trash collection in Metn and Kesrouan on Tuesday after a six-day stoppage due to the closure of a Jdeideh landfill. Khoury Contracting, the company that operates the landfill, had closed the site because of security concerns related to scrap metal scavengers trespassing on the property, who had in some cases become aggressive with employees, the company’s CEO, Dany Khoury, told L’Orient Today. The closure left dumpsters overflowing and trash piling up on streets. The company agreed to reopen the landfill on Tuesday after the authorities agreed to supply additional security, Khoury said.
The head of the fuel distributors’ syndicate, Fadi Abou Chakra, said that the owners of more than 140 gas stations are refusing to receive fuel from importers. Abou Chakra said the move comes as gas station employees have been exposed to extortion, beatings and other problems by angry residents who are forced to wait in long queues at petrol stations because of supply shortages.
Meanwhile, taxi drivers continued lining up at a Coral gas station in Beirut’s Raouche area that is now reserving its services exclusively for public transit drivers. While the wait there was as long as it is at many other fuel stations and sales were capped at LL50,000 per customer, some drivers told L’Orient Today that it was nevertheless a step up from waiting in line and ending up without gas, which they said has happened at other stations. The land transport union’s head, Bassam Tlais, told L’Orient Today that he is negotiating with fuel companies to allocate one gas station for taxi and service drivers in each area, although he said this “collaboration” depends on how much fuel each station can get.
Lawmakers are set to discuss a proposal for a ration card system to support needy families during a joint parliamentary committee session today. The consolidated proposal, which would replace the current subsidies scheme, emerged from a subcommittee meeting held yesterday to debate divergent ration card proposals from caretaker Premier Hassan Diab and Free Patriotic Movement leader Gebran Bassil. MP Yassine Jaber (Amal bloc/Nabatieh) said in a statement that such a system could potentially be funded by transferring money from World Bank loans previously approved for other programs, but that “this matter is left to the government’s discretion.” While in theory World Bank officials have said they would be willing to transfer funds to social support programs, in practice any additional funding will be contingent on the implementation of a currently stalled $246 million loan program to provide assistance to the country’s poorest households. MP Pierre Bou Assi (LF/Baabda) said the ration card program needs to be implemented swiftly because “lifting subsidies is a fait accompli, whether we like it or not.”
The municipal employees’ association has called for a three-day strike starting today to protest what it described as unjust employment terms. The workers will join other public sector employees who have already staged walkouts. These include Rafik Hariri University Hospital workers, who continued striking for a second day on Tuesday, and public administrations in Saida, which closed their doors yesterday to protest skyrocketing living costs, deteriorating living conditions and gasoline shortages. Still other public sector workers had gone on strike last week over poor working conditions, including a lack of health coverage, and the collapse of their pensions’ value due to the lira’s fall against the US dollar.
Correction: A previous version of the Morning Brief stated that caretaker Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni had announced the increase in bread prices. In fact, the Economy Ministry made the announcement. A previous version also reported that the latest increase is the ministry’s fifth price rise this year; in fact, it is the seventh.
