BEIRUT: Lebanon, whose currency has been pegged to the dollar for 23 years, is ready to float the pound only after it secures billions in aid, Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni said Friday.
Speaking to AFP after talks started Wednesday with the International Monetary Fund on a plan to rescue Lebanon’s free falling economy, he also said a restructuring of the banking sector would entail halving the number of banks in the country.
A hard currency crunch in recent months has strained the official fixed rate of 1,507 to the dollar, with the pound losing more than half of its value to fetch well over 4,000 on the black market.
“The IMF always asks for the freeing of the pound’s exchange rate,” Wazni said.
But “we need to change the stabilization policy to one of a flexible exchange rate in a first stage and for the forseeable future,” he said, referring to an initial managed flotation.
“When we receive financial support from abroad, we will transition to floatation” according to the market, he said.
“The Lebanese government has asked for a transitional period to pass through a flexible exchange rate before we reach floatation,” he added.
Wazni said the first phase would involve “a gradual increase of the exchange rate to the dollar,” in coordination with the central bank.
He said this was necessary because the government feared “huge deterioration of the pound exchange rate” otherwise.
Lebanon, which was hit last autumn by unprecedented protests, asked the IMF for financial assistance on May 1 after laying out a much-awaited financial rescue plan.
That plan aims to drum up billions of dollars in aid, reduce the deficit, restructure a colossal debt, and reorganize an oversized banking sector.
Wazni said the restructuring would be done “step by step.”
“Lebanon counts 49 commercial banks and it is normal for that number to decrease to around half of that in the next stage,” he said.
Lebanon is in the grips of a severe liquidity crunch, with depositors unable to make transfers abroad or withdraw dollars.
The Mediterranean nation is one of the most indebted countries worldwide with a debt equivalent to 170 percent of its gross domestic product.
It defaulted on a repayment for the first time ever in March.
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Crisis-hit Lebanon ready to float pound after aid: Finance minister
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Crisis-hit Lebanon ready to float pound after aid: Finance minister
- A hard currency crunch in recent months has strained the official fixed rate of 1,507 to the dollar
- “When we receive financial support from abroad, we will transition to floatation” according to the market, Wazni said
The West Bank soccer field slated for demolition by Israel
- The move is likely to eliminate one of the few spaces where Palestinian children are able to run and play
BETHLEHEM: Israeli authorities have ordered the demolition of a soccer field in a crowded refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, eliminating one of the few spaces where Palestinian children are able to run and play.
“If the field gets demolished, this will destroy our dreams and our future. We cannot play any other place but this field, the camp does not have spaces,” said Rital Sarhan, 13, who plays on a girls’ soccer team in the Aida refugee camp near Bethlehem.
The Israeli military issued a demolition order for the soccer field on December 31, saying it was built illegally in an area that abuts the concrete barrier wall that Israel built in the West Bank.
“Along the security fence, a seizure order and a construction prohibition order are in effect; therefore, the construction in the area was carried out unlawfully,” the Israeli military said in a statement.
Mohammad Abu Srour, an administrator at Aida Youth Center, which manages the field, said the military gave them seven days to demolish the field.
The Israeli military often orders Palestinians to carry out demolitions themselves. If they do not act, the military steps in to destroy the structure in question and then sends the Palestinians a bill for the costs.
According to Abu Srour, Israel’s military told residents when delivering the demolition order that the soccer field represented a threat to the separation wall and to Israelis.
“I do not know how this is possible,” he said.
Israeli demolitions have drawn widespread international criticism and coincide with heightened fears among Palestinians of an organized effort by Israel to formally annex the West Bank, the area seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. Israel accelerated demolitions in Palestinian refugee camps in early 2025, leading to the displacement of 32,000 residents of camps in the central and northern West Bank. Human Rights Watch has called the demolitions a war crime. Israel has said they are intended to disrupt militant activity.
“If the field gets demolished, this will destroy our dreams and our future. We cannot play any other place but this field, the camp does not have spaces,” said Rital Sarhan, 13, who plays on a girls’ soccer team in the Aida refugee camp near Bethlehem.
The Israeli military issued a demolition order for the soccer field on December 31, saying it was built illegally in an area that abuts the concrete barrier wall that Israel built in the West Bank.
“Along the security fence, a seizure order and a construction prohibition order are in effect; therefore, the construction in the area was carried out unlawfully,” the Israeli military said in a statement.
Mohammad Abu Srour, an administrator at Aida Youth Center, which manages the field, said the military gave them seven days to demolish the field.
The Israeli military often orders Palestinians to carry out demolitions themselves. If they do not act, the military steps in to destroy the structure in question and then sends the Palestinians a bill for the costs.
According to Abu Srour, Israel’s military told residents when delivering the demolition order that the soccer field represented a threat to the separation wall and to Israelis.
“I do not know how this is possible,” he said.
Israeli demolitions have drawn widespread international criticism and coincide with heightened fears among Palestinians of an organized effort by Israel to formally annex the West Bank, the area seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. Israel accelerated demolitions in Palestinian refugee camps in early 2025, leading to the displacement of 32,000 residents of camps in the central and northern West Bank. Human Rights Watch has called the demolitions a war crime. Israel has said they are intended to disrupt militant activity.
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