Lebanon: Retailers to Shut Down amid Debilitating Crisis

Anti-government protesters carry Lebanese flags and burn tires as they block the main highway north of Beirut during a protest over deteriorating living conditions. EPA
Anti-government protesters carry Lebanese flags and burn tires as they block the main highway north of Beirut during a protest over deteriorating living conditions. EPA
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Lebanon: Retailers to Shut Down amid Debilitating Crisis

Anti-government protesters carry Lebanese flags and burn tires as they block the main highway north of Beirut during a protest over deteriorating living conditions. EPA
Anti-government protesters carry Lebanese flags and burn tires as they block the main highway north of Beirut during a protest over deteriorating living conditions. EPA

Major retailers in Lebanon announced on Thursday they will temporarily shut down in the face of an increasingly volatile currency market and their inability to set prices while the Lebanese pound plunges against the dollar.

Later in the day, owners of the businesses rallied in central Beirut to denounce the government’s inability to handle a deepening economic and financial crisis, and urging others to join them.

“The company is losing and ... (the customers) think we are robbing them," Samir Saliba, owner of sportswear retailer Mike Sport, told The Associated Press. “We want a clear economic policy to know how to move forward and not buy our dollars from the black market and be humiliated with the brokers and money changers."

The protesters called on the government to resign and urged other stores to join their protest shutdown.

The Lebanese pound recorded a new low Thursday, selling at nearly 10,000 for a dollar and maintaining the downward slide that saw the national currency lose about 85% of its value over the past months.

Despite government and central bank efforts to regulate the foreign currency rate, a parallel market has thrived and inflation is soaring as the dollar becomes increasingly scarce.

Amid the tumbling pound, prices and inflation have soared. Power cuts have also increased, as the government struggles to secure fuel and diesel, while grocery stores began imposing a limit on how many items customers can buy amid a rush to hoard basic goods.

The country is experiencing an unparalleled economic meltdown, rooted in years of mismanagement and excessive public spending.

On Thursday, embattled Prime Minister Hassan Diab accused “local and external parties” of seeking to besiege Lebanon and make his government fail. He also accused internal forces he did not name of causing the currency crisis.

“The dollar game has become exposed and visible,” he told a Cabinet meeting. Diab also claimed foreign countries were “blatantly interfering in Lebanon's affairs,” aided by internal powers to “drag Lebanon into the region's conflicts.” He did not elaborate.



Tunisia Gets Offers in 75,000 T Soft Wheat Tender, Traders Say

Agricultural labourers harvest the wheat crop at Chadiala village in the northern Indian state of Punjab April 10, 2008. REUTERS/Ajay Verma (INDIA)
Agricultural labourers harvest the wheat crop at Chadiala village in the northern Indian state of Punjab April 10, 2008. REUTERS/Ajay Verma (INDIA)
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Tunisia Gets Offers in 75,000 T Soft Wheat Tender, Traders Say

Agricultural labourers harvest the wheat crop at Chadiala village in the northern Indian state of Punjab April 10, 2008. REUTERS/Ajay Verma (INDIA)
Agricultural labourers harvest the wheat crop at Chadiala village in the northern Indian state of Punjab April 10, 2008. REUTERS/Ajay Verma (INDIA)

The lowest price offered in the international tender from Tunisia's state grains agency on Thursday to purchase about 75,000 metric tons of soft wheat was believed to be $262.91 a ton cost and freight (c&f) included, European traders said.

Offers are still being considered and no purchase has yet been reported. The lowest offer is not always accepted if conditions attached to it are regarded as unattractive, Reuters reported.

The lowest offer was believed to have been submitted for optional-origin wheat by trading house Cargill for 25,000 tons, they said.

Cargill also made the next lowest offer of $263.91 also for 25,000 tons, they said.

Reports reflect assessments from traders and further estimates of prices and volumes are still possible later.

Shipment was requested between May 20 and June 30 depending on origin supplied.