A moneychanger holds dollars and Lebanese lira in Beirut, March 14, 2023. (Credit: File photo/Anwar Amro/AFP)
BEIRUT — The Lebanese lira gained value against the US dollar on the parallel market around midday Friday, trading below LL90,000 to the dollar. For nearly three months, the national currency had been relatively stable against the dollar, trading at around LL93,000.
According to the lirarate.org platform, a dollar was being bought at LL89,000 and sold at LL88,500 shortly before midday.
On March 21, the price of the Lebanese lira reached a new record, with the dollar trading on the market for over LL140,000. The lira value rose in the following days, returning to LL100,000 to the dollar in early April.
This change in the exchange rate comes as Riad Salameh, who has led Lebanon's central bank for 30 years, sees his term of office expire at the end of July.
In more than three years of economic crisis in Lebanon, the national currency has depreciated by more than 98 percent on the parallel market compared with the official rate in place at the onset of the crisis. Meanwhile, without a fully fledged president or government, the country is stalling in adopting the reforms needed to halt the economic and financial collapse.
Some of the population and the political class hold Salameh partly responsible for the economic crisis. Salameh is targeted in Europe and Lebanon by several investigations into alleged corruption; he, however, maintains his innocence in the face of these accusations.