Lebanon’s Central Bank issued a circular yesterday stating that all electronic money transfers from abroad be exclusively paid out in Lebanese pounds, in an attempt to limit the outpour of US dollars. The circular does not apply to bank transfers but to international money transfers sent through companies like OMT and Moneygram.
With the way things are going, you can expect further drastic measures in the coming future if we fail to form a government or start implementing reforms. Moreover, Our Finance Minister and all concerned ministries must carefully choose their words when tackling the economy and debt, to avoid what happened with the dollar bonds in the past few days.
We need a government soon and we need to start cutting down on our expenses as of this moment. The obvious and rational thing to do is for the government and parliament members to stop earning salaries and cut down on their expenses and benefits for as long as it’s needed. At the same time, they should start downsizing in all ministries and governmental institutions. Unfortunately and instead of doing so, expenses have trippled from last year and political parties are recruiting thousands to useless posts in various ministries. Next thing you know, they are raising taxes on electricity and increase the VAT to 15% to fund the debt interest and plunge the country into a deeper economic crisis.