A one dollar bill in front of 10,000 Lebanese pounds. (Marc Fayad/File photo)
The Lebanese lira came close to breaking its depreciation record on Wednesday, with the dollar trading around LL 37,000 on the parallel market. The lira last fell below LL37,000 on May 27.
The record low for the lira, according to the lirarate.org platform, was LL37,750, recorded at 3:21 p.m. that day.
According to the lirarate.org platform, the dollar was worth LL 37,150 to buy and LL 37,050 to sell, around 4 p.m. Wednesday. The gap between the parallel market rate and Banque du Liban's Sayrafa platform (LL28,600, as of Tuesday night) continues to widen, now amounting to a difference of about LBP 8,550. The Sayrafa platform was developed to try to stabilize the exchange rate.
On Monday, BDL lifted the last remaining fuel subsidies after gradually reducing subsidies over the past month. This means importers now have to get more dollars on the parallel market to pay for fuel, which increases the demand for dollars and causes the local lira to depreciate further.
Earlier this year, Lebanon reached a preliminary agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which called for the introduction of a floating exchange rate. The agreement included additional reforms that the Lebanese government must undertake in order to unlock a massive financial assistance package.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this post said the lira rate reached a new record low on the parallel market today. The record low was recorded on May 27, 2022.