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ECONOMIC CRISIS

Taxi drivers protest outside Interior Ministry against fuel price hike

Taxi drivers protest outside Interior Ministry against fuel price hike

Taxi drivers are unhappy with fuel price increases. (Credit: João Sousa/L’Orient Today)

BEIRUT - Taxi drivers held a daytime sit-in Thursday in front of the Interior Ministry headquarters in Beirut to protest steep fuel price increases, the state-run National News Agency reported.

Here’s what we know:

    • The protesters blocked the road with their cars in the Beirut neighborhood of Sanayeh, denouncing the deterioration of their living conditions and the increase in fuel prices. Earlier Thursday, the price of 95 octane gasoline was increased by the Lebanese state to LL17,000, reaching a price of LL559,000 for 20-liters.

    • This protest comes a few hours after the Ministry of Energy announced a new sharp rise in fuel prices against a backdrop of depreciation of the national currency. Fuel prices in Lebanon are set by the Energy Ministry using a formula partially dependent on the exchange rate between the Lebanese lira, which has depreciated in recent days, and the US dollar.

    • In a statement Tuesday, gas station owners' syndicate spokesperson George Brax said that gasoline prices have been rising globally due to easing of lockdown restrictions in China as well as disruptions to the petroleum market caused by the war in Ukraine.  

BEIRUT - Taxi drivers held a daytime sit-in Thursday in front of the Interior Ministry headquarters in Beirut to protest steep fuel price increases, the state-run National News Agency reported.
Here’s what we know:
    • The protesters blocked the road with their cars in the Beirut neighborhood of Sanayeh, denouncing the deterioration of their living conditions and the increase...