Despite Minister of Finance Youssef Khalil announcing at the end of September that the official dollar exchange rate would be set at 15,000 Lebanese Lira starting November 1, there has been no official information about the decision being activated even three days after the mentioned date. The official website of the Central Bank of Lebanon, https://bdl.gov.lb/, still indicates that the official exchange rate is 1,507.5 L.L. Furthermore, the statement from the Central Bank on the evening of Sunday, October 23, which spoke about "selling the US dollar exclusively through the SAYRAFA platform starting Tuesday, October 25, noting that it will not be purchasing dollars via the SAYRAFA platform from that point until further notice," aimed to curb any rise if the implementation took place. However, it seems that the objections to the Minister of Finance's sudden decision at that time have had an impact... the date has passed without implementation, at least for now.
Thus, several concerned sources mention a delay in the implementation, especially since raising the exchange rate to 15,000 will automatically require amending Circular 151 related to withdrawals based on 8,000 L.L. to also be raised to 15,000 L.L. In this context, former Minister of Economy Raed Khoury explains through "Akhbar Al-Yawm" agency that raising the official dollar rate is part of unifying the exchange rate, which is a fundamental requirement of the International Monetary Fund. He stated that it is still unclear when the new exchange rate will be adopted, given the ongoing conditions existing at the Central Bank, but this step will happen soon, especially in light of setting the dollar exchange rate in the 2022 budget at 15,000 L.L. to increase revenue value, considering that the central bank should follow suit and thus the circular regarding withdrawals at the 8,000 rate must be canceled.
Regarding the banking situation, Khoury believes that significant damage will be inflicted on the sector, particularly since banks' capital is in local currency, which will reduce its value by ten times. Will this lead to merging banks or restructuring the sector? Khoury responds that when any bank's capital drops, the "central bank" requires it to recapitalize within a certain period, and during this period, relevant laws are established starting with restructuring, hence, a bank unable to meet the new conditions withdraws from the market.
