The president of the Order of Pharmacists, Joe Salloum, held a press conference on Tuesday to demand an increase in the salary of retirees from liberal professions, including pharmacists.

"We call on the Central Bank of Lebanon to issue a circular that would allow retirees from liberal professions to withdraw at least $300 per month without any preconditions, and without preventing them from benefiting from other circulars," he said.

He added: "The source of funding for such a circular would be the money from the retirement funds of the liberal professions' orders, which amounts to $447 million (in banks), and which these orders have not been able to benefit from so far. The budget required to finance this measure would not exceed $36 million per year."

Since the onset of the financial and economic crisis in 2019, Lebanese depositors have had limited access to their accounts, frozen in banks, based on circulars that limit withdrawals depending on the case.

Salloum specified that the Order of Pharmacists "has managed to increase its income to secure a retirement salary of $520 for its members, but this remains insufficient to cover the necessities of life," noting that a plan to increase this salary to $800 was not possible.