Banque du Liban's entrance in Beirut. (Credit: Joao Sousa/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Banque du Liban on Tuesday again extended the validity of Circular 161, meaning it will remain in force until the end of December.
The circular was originally released on Dec. 16 last year. It allows banks to sell dollars to depositors at the Sayrafa rate, and has been repeatedly renewed by the central bank since.
The Sayrafa rate stood at LL30,300 to the dollar on Monday night, while the rate on the parallel market reached a new record low on Tuesday, trading around LL40,700 to the dollar.
The dollars exchanged under the implementation of Circular 161 are provided directly to banks by BDL at the Sayrafa rate and are drawn from the country's foreign exchange reserves, the exact level of which is not known.
This 11th extension of the circular comes as caretaker Finance Minister, Youssef Khalil, announced last Wednesday that he had sent a note to the central bank asking it to calculate, as of Dec. 1, the customs duties using an exchange rate of LL15,000 to the dollar, instead of the official exchange rate of LL1,507.5, which is still in force.