The value of the Lebanese pound on the parallel market is at a historic low as the country’s economic crisis continues.
The Lebanese pound has sunk to a historic low against the US dollar on the country’s parallel market, the latest sombre milestone in an economic meltdown that has plunged much of the population into poverty.
The Lebanese pound, officially pegged at 15,000 to the dollar, was trading at 100,000 against the greenback, dealers said on Tuesday – a dizzying plunge from 1,507 before the economic crisis hit in 2019.
The currency’s market value was at about 60,000 to the dollar in late January.
Despite the gravity of the crisis, the political elite, which has been widely blamed for the country’s financial collapse, has failed to check the currency’s free fall.
Since last year, the country has had no president and only a caretaker government, amid persistent deadlock between rival alliances in parliament.
Lebanese banks that have long imposed draconian withdrawal restrictions – essentially locking depositors out of their life savings – were closed on Tuesday as they resumed an open-ended strike.
The strike began early last month to protest against what the Association of Banks in Lebanon described as “arbitrary” judicial measures against lenders after depositors filed lawsuits to retrieve savings.
In response to the lawsuits, some judges sought to seize the funds of bank directors or board members or to force lenders to pay out customers’ dollar deposits in pounds at the old 1,507 exchange rate.
Hold-ups
Customers had a two-week reprieve from the strike after caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati intervened late last month to impede the work of one of the judges investigating banks.
Over the past three years, bank withdrawal limits have sparked public outrage that has seen some Lebanese resort to armed hold-ups in a bid to lay hands on their own money.
The facades of many banks in the capital are almost unrecognisable from the outside, covered in protective metal panels, while ATMs have been vandalised and bank branches have repeatedly closed for days.
In mid-February, dozens of angry demonstrators attacked several banks in Beirut after the pound sunk to about 80,000 against the greenback.
Political inaction and a lack of accountability have been a hallmark of the Lebanese economic crisis.
Officials have failed to enact any of the reforms demanded by international creditors in return for unlocking billions of dollars in emergency loans.
In April last year, the International Monetary Fund announced an agreement in principle to provide Beirut with $3bn in loans spread over four years – conditional on a package of sweeping reforms.
Lebanon is facing the economic meltdown largely leaderless, as divided politicians have failed to elect a new president for months – in a country already governed by a caretaker cabinet with limited powers.
Lebanon has had no president since Michel Aoun’s term ended in October. Repeated sessions of parliament convened to elect a successor have all failed to reach an agreement on a consensus candidate.
OTTAWA – The parliamentary budget officer says the federal government likely failed to keep its deficit below its promised $40 billion cap in the last fiscal year.
However the PBO also projects in its latest economic and fiscal outlook today that weak economic growth this year will begin to rebound in 2025.
The budget watchdog estimates in its report that the federal government posted a $46.8 billion deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pledged a year ago to keep the deficit capped at $40 billion and in her spring budget said the deficit for 2023-24 stayed in line with that promise.
The final tally of the last year’s deficit will be confirmed when the government publishes its annual public accounts report this fall.
The PBO says economic growth will remain tepid this year but will rebound in 2025 as the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts stimulate spending and business investment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the level of food insecurity increased in 2022 as inflation hit peak levels.
In a report using data from the Canadian community health survey, the agency says 15.6 per cent of households experienced some level of food insecurity in 2022 after being relatively stable from 2017 to 2021.
The reading was up from 9.6 per cent in 2017 and 11.6 per cent in 2018.
Statistics Canada says the prevalence of household food insecurity was slightly lower and stable during the pandemic years as it fell to 8.5 per cent in the fall of 2020 and 9.1 per cent in 2021.
In addition to an increase in the prevalence of food insecurity in 2022, the agency says there was an increase in the severity as more households reported moderate or severe food insecurity.
It also noted an increase in the number of Canadians living in moderately or severely food insecure households was also seen in the Canadian income survey data collected in the first half of 2023.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales in August fell to their lowest level since January 2022 as sales in the primary metal and petroleum and coal product subsectors fell.
The agency says manufacturing sales fell 1.3 per cent to $69.4 billion in August, after rising 1.1 per cent in July.
The drop came as sales in the primary metal subsector dropped 6.4 per cent to $5.3 billion in August, on lower prices and lower volumes.
Sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector fell 3.7 per cent to $7.8 billion in August on lower prices.
Meanwhile, sales of aerospace products and parts rose 7.3 per cent to $2.7 billion in August and wood product sales increased 3.8 per cent to $3.1 billion.
Overall manufacturing sales in constant dollars fell 0.8 per cent in August.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
