The Central Bank of Lebanon issued on Thursday a statement in which it clarified that it had notified the government since August 2020 about lifting the oil subsidies before taking the decision in this regard, stressing that it was not legally possible to tamper with the mandatory foreign currency investments it has.

The statement added that although the Central Bank has paid more than $800 million to cover fuel costs over the past month and the bills of medicine have doubled, those commodities are still missing from the market and are sold at prices that exceed their value, even when subsidies are lifted.

“This proves the necessity of going from subsidizing commodities, which benefit the merchants and monopolists, to directly supporting the citizen, which would preserves the dignity of the Lebanese in light of these difficult conditions that the country is going through.”

the Central Bank issued on Wednesday a statement in which it confirmed it could no longer subsidize the fuel imports.

Source: Al-Manar English Website and NNA