A money changer holds bundles of Lebanese lira notes. (Credit: Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)
BEIRUT — The Syndicate of Money Changers in Lebanon issued a statement Sunday listing the reasons why its members cannot base their lira exchange transactions on the central bank’s Sayrafa platform rate.
Here’s what we know:
• The syndicate said the Sayrafa platform rate does not represent real supply and demand in the open market.
• According to the statement, the rate in force on the exchange market in Lebanon is still significantly higher than that of the Sayrafa platform. “No one can really buy currencies at the rate of this platform, set up with the objective of making more transparent a market plunged into limbo for more than two years of crisis,” the statement reads.
• The syndicate highlighted that the platform ”seems to be only used to calculate and disseminate the average of the various daily rates at which foreign exchange transactions by banks, certain changers and money transfer companies are carried out.”
• The statement comes in response to Lebanon’s central bank Gov. Riad Salameh’s comment earlier this month that “the real dollar/lira exchange rate is what Banque du Liban announces daily.”
• On Friday, the Sayrafa rate was LL22,400 to the dollar, while the parallel market is trading around LL27,000.