Lebanon raises the price of bread three times a year | Business and Financial Issues

For the fifth time this year, Lebanon has raised the price of baked goods as the political, economic and economic crisis intensifies.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Finance and Trade has raised the price of subsidized bread for the winter of the year as a number of problems in the country worsen uncontrollably.

The ministry said Tuesday that the reason for the recent increase – 18% from the last increase in February – was that the central bank had stopped offering sugar subsidies, which increased the price of bread.

Lebanon is struggling financially and financially in its past history – which the World Bank has said should be like one of the worst the world has seen it for the last 150 years. The Lebanese pound has lost 90% of its value since the uprising swept the country in 2019. Earlier this month, the pound broke down by less than 15,500 Lebanese pounds to the dollar on the black market. The change in government is about 1,507 pounds to the dollar.

The World Bank said in a report this month that Lebanon’s gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to gain 9.5% in 2021 less than 20.3% in 2020 and 6.7% last year.

The central bank has been cutting foreign currency payments in dollars, as foreign currency has dropped dramatically, from $ 30bn in the first half of the crisis at the end of 2019, to about $ 15bn so far. This has caused traders to raise prices or stop importing.

Many Lebanese people have seen their purchasing power dwindle and their income changed, and more than half of the country’s young people now live in abject poverty.

The government in June last year raised the price of empty bread, the largest in Lebanon, by more than 30 percent – for the first time in 10 years. Since then it has doubled in price before Tuesday.

The Ministry of Finance estimates that 910gm (two pounds) worth of bread will sell for 3,250 pounds (more than $ 2 the legal limit). It sold for 2,750 pounds before a recent increase.

Lebanon faces a serious oil crisis, drug shortages – all of which are still subsidized by the government – and other important issues. Power cuts take a long time and people wait in line for hours to fill their cars. Gunfire erupted in the oil rig, leaving several people injured.

One of the reasons for the shortage of oil is the smuggling of neighboring Syria, which suffers from oil shortages but five times more expensive than Lebanon.

A spokesman for the oil company, Fadi Abu Shakra, said the owners of 140 oil companies refused to accept the oil on Tuesday because of the problems they were facing, including intimidation, harassment and beatings.

“They will not be able to defend themselves,” he said, calling on security forces to protect the oil depots, according to the National News Agency.