Limited trading, outside the formal and parallel markets, showed a significant improvement in the exchange rate of the Lebanese pound against the US dollar at the end of the week.
This came amid reports of an imminent central bank intervention in the exchange market and the launching of the electronic trading platform early this week.
In remarks to Asharq Al-Awsat, economists said that reinforcing the central bank’s role in curbing speculation and protecting the balance of the exchange market through direct intervention could limit them to a special rate. Those would be determined through the online platform, in direct cooperation with the banking system.
These expectations come in parallel with information about Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh’s participation in the scheduled rounds of negotiations with the IMF experts.
Salameh had previously stated that he would not participate in talks on the government’s economic rescue plan, over which he expressed reservations.
Despite the total lockdown imposed over the past four days and the continued strike by exchange offices in protest against the arrest of the head of their union, Mahmoud Mrad, Asharq Al-Awsat monitored an important shift in the mobile money changers and applications on phones and social media, as margins shrank successively from about LBP4,400 to around LBP3,700 per USD.
Observers hope that the new monetary measures would be accompanied with the strict implementation by the security forces of the decisions of the Supreme Defense Council aimed at combatting the smuggling of subsidized goods to Syria, especially fuel and flour.
