Livelihoods in crisis: Monthly salary loses 40% of its purchasing power

After that the dollar exchange rate exceeded the ceiling of LBP 2000 in the black market (https://lkdg.org/ar/node/19020), economic experts in Lebanon say that the monthly salary of the Lebanese is set to lose more than 40% of its purchasing value, adding that with most institutions planning to operate part-time, while cutting to half their workforce’s salaries, the majority of the Lebanese people will soon fall under the poverty line. As for the fluctuating prices of merchandise, the head of the Consumer Protection Directorate, Zuheir Berro, said that the price of one product has varied from one store to another and from one region to another. He pointed to a state of total chaos sparked first, by the rise in the rate of the dollar in the exchange market, and second, by greedy manipulative importers and traders who are trying to force their prices undeterred (noting that nearly 85% of consumer products in the Lebanese market is imported). Similarly, the director-general of the ministry of economy and trade, Alia Abbas, attributed the crisis of prices to the incomplete powers of her ministry which are largely confined to regulate the relationship between retailers and consumers and to recording violations. She disclosed that she has filed a letter yesterday to the justice minister requesting exceptional powers that will allow her ministry to give violations the nature of ‘urgency’ by referring them to the competent judiciary. Abbas maintained that such powers will also serve as a deterrent act enforced by an accelerated executive force. (Al Akhbar, Al Diyar, November 28, 2019)