(3 Mar 2023)
LEBANON DOLLARIZATION
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
LENGTH: 2:46
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Beirut, Lebanon - 22 February 2023
1. Various of dollar-priced store
Beirut, Lebanon - 1 March 2023
2. Various of mini market owner Moheidein Bazazo sticking price tags on goods in his shop
3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Moheidein Bazazo, mini market owner:
"We are forced to price things in dollars and sell them (in Lebanese pounds) at the market rate, because a lot of shops have been hurt. Lots of shops, including us, we have been hurt by the dollar crisis and by the lack of electricity. Both of them together, how can we keep up? We used to have chicken and meat. We used to have everything available, frozen items, fresh assorted vegetables. It has all stopped now. It has all stopped now, as you can see."
4. Various of shopper Wassila Ayash speaking with Bazazo
5. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Wassila Ayash, shopper:
"Nobody has dollars. And if there are dollars, it comes from abroad. But for us, who is going to give us dollars? No one. It’s been three days I'm without gas. In this supermarket they know. He lets us borrow sometimes. It has been three days that I haven’t been able to afford a gas canister. Where am I supposed to get dollars? How can I get the money to pay for it? This is unfair. It is a big injustice."
Beirut, Lebanon - 22 February 2023
6. Various of dollar-priced store
Beirut, Lebanon - 28 February 2023
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Sami Zoughaib, economist and research manager at The Policy Initiative:
"There has been a redefinition of job. A redefinition of labor. The line that we used to think about before, white collar, blue collar, informal, formal do not matter. The only thing that matters is dollars or no dollars. And this is a very, very dangerous trend that will lead to disruptions that will be really difficult to reverse down the line."
Beirut, Lebanon - 22 February 2023
8. Various of store with dollar pricing
STORYLINE:
With the Lebanese economy in shambles and its currency in a free fall, shopkeepers struggle to keep up with a fluctuating exchange rate.
Businesses like Moheidein Bazazo's are increasingly leaning on one of the world’s most reliable assets - the U.S. dollar - as a way to cope with the worst financial crisis in the country's modern history.
"We are forced to price things in dollars and sell them (in Lebanese pounds) at the market rate," says Bazazo.
The Lebanese pound has lost over 95% of its value since late 2019, and now most restaurants and many stores are demanding to be paid in dollars, or in Lebanese pounds at the black market rate.
The government recently began allowing grocery stores, like Bazazo’s, to start doing the same.
While this “dollarization” aims to ease inflation and stabilize the economy, it also threatens to push more people into poverty and deepen the crisis.
That's because few people in Lebanon have access to dollars to pay for food and other essentials priced that way.
But endemic corruption means leaders are resisting the alternative to dollarization: long-term reforms to banks and government agencies that would end wasteful spending and jump-start the economy.
Three-quarters of Lebanon's 6 million people have fallen into poverty since the 2019 crisis began.
Crippling power cuts and medicine shortages have paralyzed much of public life.
Currency shortages prompted banks to limit withdrawals, trapping millions of people’s savings.
It has led some in desperation to hold up banks to forcibly take back their money.
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8 сен 2024
