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BEIRUT:  Lebanon was reeling on Sunday under the twin blows of the coronavirus pandemic and a financial crisis that threatened to make the national currency virtually worthless.
Authorities recorded three new virus cases, raising the total to 707, and the death toll remained unchanged at 24.

Lockdown restrictions will be eased on Monday. Face masks are compulsory, but shops, factories and restaurants may open for longer, and people in vocational trades such as plumbers and carpenters will be allowed to work.

However, the pandemic is being overshadowed by the plunging value of the Lebanese pound and a political row over the culpability of central bank governor Riad Salameh.

The currency has lost more than half its value since October and slid to record lows on the black market last week, reaching 4,200 to the dollar before currency dealers went on strike.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab blamed Salameh for the currency crisis, and the governor was also attacked by Free Patriotic Movement leader Gebran Bassil. 

“Thieving, corrupt, and greedy beneficiaries as well as bank owners, shareholders, and the central bank” were responsible for the state’s financial losses, Bassil said.

However, the governor was defended by parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri and Maronite Christian Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rai.

Berri said Lebanon could not afford to remove Salameh just as it was entering negotiations with foreign bondholders after defaulting on debt obligations. 

“Lebanese will wake up to the price of the dollar at 15,000 pounds,” he said. 

“If the central bank of Lebanon does not remain, then everyone knows depositors’ funds are gone for ever.”

Al-Rai said criticism of Salameh would only hurt Lebanon. “We ask, who benefits from the destabilization of the central bank governorship? We know the dire outcome, which is eliminating the confidence of the Lebanese people and other countries in the constitutional foundations of the state.”

Amid growing public unrest, a bomb was detonated on Saturday night outside a bank in Sidon, the phrase “You are in danger” was sprayed outside several other banks in the city, and a bank in Tyre was attacked with petrol bombs early on Sunday. 

Licensed moneychangers will resume work on Monday, having not done so since Thursday in protest of the “unjustified deterioration of the exchange rate.” 

This return coincides with the growing political tension toward the monetary policy of the governor of the Banque du Liban. The head of the Syndicate of Money Changers, Mahmoud Murad, told Arab News: “We are literally holding our breath on Monday because things are rapidly developing and heading in a very dangerous direction.”

He added: “Things have got out of control. What is happening is not convincing at all. Some people are messing with the exchange market, and we know nothing about them except that they are controlling the exchange rate even from their houses.”

“We are waiting for the platform that the Banque du Liban promised us to know how to price the dollar, but we have not been informed of anything until now. There is an app on social media known as Lebanese Lira. We do not know its source, but it has been controlling the market for more than 3 months. This app has been shared by people since the dollar’s exchange rate was 1,600 liras. People have only been selling their dollars according to this app’s price. Someone is buying all the dollars on the market in an abnormal way.”

Murad pointed out that he “filed a complaint in the court against this app, but no one has acted yet.” He explained that there were people working from their houses and delivering exchanged money after buying dollars. “This practice dissolves the capital of legitimate money changers,” he said.

He added that dismissing the governor of the Banque du Liban, Riad Salamé, in light of the current political crisis was not the cure. He said the central bank must intervene strongly in the market by injecting $50 million to $100 million for the market price to stabilize. He said: “It is not enough to intervene using $5-$7 million a day, which happened last week for one day.”