Fuel distributors on Friday called in the cabinet to meet and curb the deteriorating lira rate. (Credit: João Sousa/L’Orient Today)
BEIRUT— The fuel distributor syndicate issued a statement on Friday calling on the cabinet to meet and move forward on efforts to address the crises in the country, saying that distributors can “no longer bear” the deteriorating value of the Lebanese lira.
Here’s what we know:
• “Distributors can no longer bear the rise in the price of the dollar because it incurs more losses than they can handle,” the syndicate said, according to the National News Agency.
• The fuel distributors also called on the cabinet, which has not met since Oct. 12, to convene and “develop an economic plan and curb the rise in the [US] dollar exchange rate, because the situation is no longer bearable."
• The statement also called on the central bank to not make any decisions “that harm the Lebanese,” citing Banque du Liban’s prior decision that fuel importers need to cover 15 percent of gasoline imports with their own US dollars while the central bank provides the other 85 percent at a set rate close to the market rate.