The economist and financial expert, Professor Maroun Khater, considered that raising the official exchange rate to 15,000 Lebanese pounds constitutes only an acknowledgment of a quarter of the current disaster, because the exchange rate collapsed 40 times.
In an interview with “Voice of All Lebanon 93.3”, Khater pointed out that doubling the official price 10 times constitutes a significant increase for the citizen, as the state takes 10 times more in dealing with him and gives him nothing in return.
Regarding raising the exchange rate on the “Sarfa” platform, Khater saw that “this measure is no longer effective due to the lack of flexibility in the market,” noting that “the delay that occurred since Monday made the market respond in a negative way and raised the exchange rate in the parallel market.”
Nevertheless, he indicated that “the measure to raise the exchange dollar will not lead to a significant decrease in the exchange rate, which will rise once more amid the continuation of the permanent reasons for that, starting with the blockage of the presidential and governmental political horizon and the continuation of smuggling, leading to the great need for dollars for internal transactions in our dollarized economy.”
Khater stressed that inflation cannot serve the government in a country like Lebanon, explaining, on the other hand, that “inflation is what controls the Lebanese government, which is living with the consequences of this inflation and has no possibility even to curb it.”
