Finance Ministry assures that its exchange rate grid only serves to clarify public accounts

Caretaker Finance Minister Youssef Khalil insisted, in an official statement published by his ministry on Wednesday, that the dollar/Lebanese Pound exchange rate grid he submitted to the government two weeks ago only served to clarify public accounts and had no impact on the issue of the value of foreign currency deposits blocked by banking restrictions since 2019.

"It is important for the Ministry of Finance to clarify that the exchange rates included in the decision of the government (No. 9 of Aug. 14, 2024) simply concern the accounting entries of the [public accounts] of the state and have no connection with the accounts of depositors in Lebanese banks," the ministry said.

According to the minutes published by the government, the table presented by the minister includes all the exchange rates taken into account since 2020 by his services to "record public expenditure and revenue" in the treasury accounts and in the public financial statements – national accounts and closed balance sheets, among others.

This decision was challenged by an appeal to the State Council filed by an association of expatriate Lebanese depositors (Union of Lebanese Expatriate Depositors) which contests the fact that the ministry made a distinction in its table between "fresh dollars" and "bank dollars."

This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.