The headquarters of Banque du Liban in Hamra, Beirut. (Credit: Layal Dagher/L'Orient-Le Jour)
BEIRUT — Banque du Liban (BDL) increased its Sayrafa platform exchange rate on Friday evening, raising it to over LL80,000 against the US dollar.
Sayrafa rate is only used for certain types of transactions. On the parallel market, the lira was trading at around LL109,000 against the dollar as of Friday evening
After almost doubling from LL45,400 to LL70,000 on March 1, the Sayrafa rate has changed every working day since March 8. On Friday, BDL raised it to LL80,200, according to a statement.
Since 2020, BDL has been trying to impose the Sayrafa rate to stabilize the parallel market. The authorities officially devalued the lira by 90 percent at the beginning of the year, increasing the rate from LL1,507.5 to LL15,000.
The Sayrafa rate applies mainly to conversion operations that individuals and businesses can perform with their bank under BDL's Circular No. 161.
Since its launch in late Dec. 2021, Circular No. 161 allows people to purchase dollars at a de facto subsidized rate provided by BDL.