A man sells produce at a market in Tripoli. (Credit: João Sousa/L'Orient Today/File photo)
The caretaker cabinet has approved a provisional and urgent measure to increase the retirement pensions of private school teachers sixfold. The decision came after private school teachers threatened to go on an open strike, should the pensioners’ situation fail to improve quickly.
Last Wednesday, cabinet also increased transport allowances, bonuses and other payments to civil servants to put an end to a strike that began in February. The total cost of the increases will amount to LL2,900 billion per month, or $32.4 million at the current market rate of LL89,500 to the dollar.
These increases include paying all categories of civil servants an amount equivalent to nine times the basic salaries — which were set before the Lebanese lira began to collapse when the economic crisis erupted in 2019.
French company Bolloré Logistics is now part of the CMA CGM group, which is set to become the fifth largest logistics provider worldwide.
Ten months after the promise of sale, the Marseilles-based CMA CGM, owned by the Saade family of Lebanese origins, has completed the acquisition of Bolloré Logistics' assets. This acquisition, the biggest in its history, will boost its own logistics division, with 14,000 employees and 900,000 square meters of additional warehouse space.
Lebanese generator rates (in kWh) have gone up for the first time in three months, by 5.4 percent compared to January 2024.
The price per kilowatt-hour (kWh) for private or neighborhood generators, which supply power to make up for shortfalls by the state-owned Electricité du Liban (EDL), has been set at LL34,286 for February bills, according to the Energy Ministry’s latest tariff update.
That means generator prices are back on the rise for the past month, after three months of consecutive, minimal, decreases. Converted at the exchange rate used by the Ministry for its calculations, i.e. LL 89,700 to the dollar, this rate is equivalent to $0.38 per kWh.
As usual, the price per kWh increased more in mountainous areas (over 700 meters above sea level) and rural areas, where it rose by 10 percent, to LL37,715.
The Energy Ministry increased the price, in Lebanese lira, of gasoline once more last week.
According to the charts published by the ministry on Wednesday, the price per 20 liters of gasoline rose by LL16,000 — or $0.18 when converted at a market rate of LL89,500. This comes at a time when global oil prices have moderately increased since the start of the year.
On the other hand, the price of diesel fell by a total of LL4,000 during this same period (around $0.04), while the price of a standard 10kg domestic gas cylinder remained stable. The price of a kiloliter of heating oil — the only one priced in foreign currency — fell by a total of $3.36 in one week.
Here are the latest prices:
