BEIRUT, Lebanon – In normal times, Ziad Hassan, a grocery store manager in Beirut, received a daily e-mail from his network management stating which prices needed to be adjusted and by how much.
But as the Lebanese currency collapsed, leaving the economy in a tailspin, e-mails arrive up to three times a day, asking for price increases throughout the store.
“We have to change everything,” said an exasperated Mr. Hassan, adding that his employees were often unable to finish scheduling a price increase before the next one arrived. “It’s crazy.”
The country’s economic crisis became more acute last week, when the Lebanese pound fell to 15,000 per dollar on the black market – its lowest level ever – sucking up people’s wages while prices for previously affordable goods skyrocketed. reach. He has since recovered to around 12,000.
Lebanon has struggled with a web of economic and political crises since the end of 2019 that have led to rampant unemployment, skyrocketing prices, road closures by angry protesters and a government without a clear plan to slow the fall. A catastrophic explosion in the port of Beirut in August, which killed 190 people and left a large part of the capital in ruins, only added to the misery.
In a country where most products are imported, the collapse of the currency has left no sector indifferent.
Food prices rose 400 percent in December compared to the previous year, according to government statistics, while prices for clothing and shoes rose 560 percent and hotels and restaurants more than 600 percent.
Many pharmacies across the country went on strike last Friday to protest the conditions that left them without some drugs and reduced their profits. Professionals, including lawyers, teachers, doctors and university professors, have seen their wages fall. Many others have been pushed into poverty.
In August, the United Nations said more than 55% of Lebanon’s population became poor, almost double the number from the previous year. Extreme poverty has tripled to 23%. And the situation has worsened since then.
The crisis arises from the collapse of a Lebanese central bank policy to keep the Lebanese pound, or lira, pegged to the dollar at a rate of around 1,500 to 1 since 1997. This has allowed people to use the two currencies interchangeably and has made it more easy for traders who sell goods in pounds to convert their profits into dollars to pay for imports.
But the state’s ability to hold the anchor faltered in late 2019, when mass protests broke out over decades of political corruption and poor governance. Since then, two governments have resigned and the gap between the pound and the dollar has widened. Calls from Western and United Nations officials for reforms, which could unlock foreign aid and a potential bailout from the International Monetary Fund, have been ignored.
For many Lebanese, the most personal element of the crisis is the supermarket, where products once considered basic have disappeared and other essentials have tripled or quadrupled in price. There was a rush to staple foods like oil, flour, sugar and rice.
“Everything is going up,” said Suheir al-Jizini, 60, after realizing that the price of the jar of cooking oil she bought last week was two-thirds higher. “I’m really shocked.”
She had gone to the store planning to buy washing powder and noodles too, but realized she didn’t have enough money. She said her husband was earning £ 750,000 a month as a driver. That used to be worth $ 500, but now it was less than $ 60.
The World Food Program said in November that food prices in Lebanon have increased 423 percent since October 2019, the biggest jump since monitoring began in 2007. Prices have continued to rise since then, putting strong pressure on the poor. .
Faten Haidar, 29, said she was struggling to prepare meals for her three children as food prices skyrocketed and her husband’s earnings at his coffee stand declined. Speaking by phone from Tripoli, in the north of the country, she said she only had labneh – a strained yogurt – in the fridge and was already in debt to her local store.
“I don’t know how to pay them,” she said.
Other essentials have also exhausted their funds, she said, like sanitary napkins, whose price has quadrupled. This burden will increase when your 12-year-old daughter reaches puberty.
“I can’t afford mine,” she said. “How can I pay for hers?”
The value of soldiers’ and police salaries has also fallen, raising concerns that social unrest and crime will increase. This month, Mohammed Fahmy, the interior minister, who oversees security forces, said wages “have hit rock bottom”.
“Three months ago, I would say that the security situation is starting to fall,” Fahmy told a local news network. “Now, I’m saying it broke.”
Addressing the military leaders, Lebanese Army chief Gen. Joseph Aoun earlier this month issued a rare public criticism of the leaders of the Lebanese sect-based political system, warning them that their soldiers were also “suffering and passing hungry”.
Addressing the leaders, he asked, “Where are we going? What do you intend to do? “
Parliament recently authorized a $ 246 million loan from the World Bank to provide cash assistance to poor families, but no significant efforts have been made to prevent the broader collapse.
The outgoing prime minister’s office, Hassan Diab, resigned after the disastrous explosion in the port of Beirut on August 4 and has yet to be replaced. This left the government operating in a reduced janitor capacity for longer than it was in power.
A former prime minister, Saad Hariri, was appointed in October to form a new government. But he made little progress, despite 17 meetings to discuss political negotiations with President Michel Aoun. Last Thursday, they agreed to meet again on Monday.
Jihad Sabat, 48, observed the decline in the Beirut butcher’s shop window that he has run since 1997. Last year, he said, the price of meat continued to rise while the number of customers declined.
A pound of beef now costs more than three times what it did before the crisis, he said – more than three times what it did before the crisis. He also saw an increase in the number of people wanting to buy on credit and interested in bringing bones to a boil for soup.
“Meat has become a luxury,” he said.
He accused the country’s politicians of stealing state money through corrupt schemes and criticized them for failing to stabilize the economy.
A friend who was at the store interrupted: “The problem is people.” Mr. Sabat nodded his head.
“This is an essential point,” he said. “If there were elections tomorrow, the same people would be back.”
At the supermarket, Hassan, the manager, said his subsidiary sold less meat each month and more lentils, although they were also imported and cost five times more than before the crisis.
Fights broke out in the corridors over government-subsidized staples such as rice, sugar and cooking oil, he said. And it is common for customers to be shocked by the stickers in the checkout line, when they realize that they can only pay for a few essential items.
“I don’t know how people continue,” he said. “But it will eventually cause an explosion.”