The Governor of the Banque du Liban, Riad Salameh, confirmed that the bank had opened an investigation to determine whether there were internal parties benefiting from the issue of Lebanon’s failure to pay its debts, and whether some individuals had accumulated wealth through this process, which they were informed in advance, and Salameh strongly opposed it due to its severe repercussions. On the state, because “the default on debts cut Lebanon from its sources of financing,” according to Salameh.
In an interview with Ici Beyrouth, Salama considered that “the demonization campaign that was launched once morest him has a twofold goal: to hold the policies he followed fully responsible for the collapse that the country is experiencing, and to incite the depositors that the state is preparing to punish once morest him.”
He said, “I do not know whether the attempt to transfer losses to the Banque du Liban is ignorant or on purpose.”
He explained in detail the results of auditing the accounts of the Banque du Liban between 2010 and 2021, disproving how the state drained 62 billion fresh dollars from the Banque du Liban during this period.
Salameh, who strongly opposed many of the expenses incurred by the executive branch, including the salary and salary series that observed in the year 2018 the increase in the salaries of public sector employees, insisted that “the losses are exclusively as a result of the expenditures imposed by the government on the basis of issuing laws. These are not the losses of a bank Lebanon, rather losses for the Banque du Liban.
In the context, he gave an example of amounts borrowed from the Central Bank at 1% interest, also on the basis of legislation so that the authorities would not have to pay interest on the debt that the Banque du Liban owes to the state.
He added: “They are trying to transfer losses to the Central Bank, but there is also a diversion of attention to incite depositors once morest the Banque du Liban, which was applying the laws.” He responded to those who accused him of financing the state by saying: “We were not alone in financing it. Arab and international organizations continued to do so. If We had to stop, everyone will have to.”
He continued, “Between 2017 and 2022, the Banque du Liban paid fresh dollars to the banks. We paid an additional $24 billion in costs. No one should say that the Banque du Liban was the one who squandered the depositors’ money.”
Salameh believed that Lebanon needs, above all, the “political stability necessary to revive the economy, because this recovery will return funds to banks and thus to depositors.”
With regard to depositors’ money, the Governor of the Banque du Liban indicated that it depends on the plan that the government will adopt. He said, “The current plan includes broad lines, but no details. Historically, there were no recovery programs in the world that punished depositors in a country.” He expressed his hope that “the Lebanese authorities will take this point into consideration during their negotiations with the International Monetary Fund.”
He stressed that “Lebanon has an interest in having a program with the International Monetary Fund. Therefore, depositors are to some extent at the mercy of negotiations between the government and the International Monetary Fund,” according to Salameh, who renewed his opposition to selling gold and explained the mechanism adopted by the Banque du Liban to stabilize the exchange rate .
He revealed that the Central Bank’s reserves amount to 11.8 billion dollars, and said: “Our 12 billion reserves are still at this level, 11.8 billion in particular. The reason for the deterioration of 200 million dollars is that our reserves contain amounts in euros and the value of the euro once morest the dollar has decreased.”
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