The headquarters of the Banque du Liban in Beirut, July 19, 2022. (Credit: Mohamed Azakir/Reuters)
BEIRUT — Banque Du Liban (BDL) announced on Tuesday that it increased its Sayrafa platform rate to LL90,000 against the dollar, in an attempt to stabilize the exchange rate on the parallel market as the lira's collapse accelerated yet again during the day.
The lira hit all-time lows during the day, plummeting to LL140,000 on the parallel market before bouncing back to LL110,000 in the early afternoon following BDL's announcement.
In a statement, BDL Governor Riad Salameh reported “an open and continuous operation of purchase of Lebanese lira and sale of dollars in cash at the Sayrafa rate,” which rose from LL83,500 to LL90,000 Tuesday.
Those wishing to exchange lira to dollars may bring their lira to licensed "category A" money changers "and get back dollars three days later," the statement said, adding that “banks that stop their strike can participate in this operation.”
A week ago, banks resumed an open-ended strike at the call of the Association of Banks in Lebanon (ABL), in protest against legal proceedings against some of them that they deemed unjustified.
This strike had been temporarily suspended after a decision announced on Feb. 24, though resumed two weeks later.
The purpose of Tuesday's Sayrafa adjustment "is to contain the rise of the dollar against the lira on the parallel market and to protect the value of savings deposited in dollars," concluded the BDL statement.
In more than three years of the economic crisis in Lebanon, the national currency has lost 98 percent of its value compared to the former official rate.
Meanwhile, without a full-fledged president or government, Lebanese authorities are stalling in adopting the reforms needed to halt the country's economic and financial collapse.