BEIRUT (AP) – Shops are closing, companies are bankrupt and pharmacies are empty – in Lebanon these days fistfights are taking place in supermarkets while shoppers are scrambling to get subsidized powdered milk, rice and cooking oil.
Like almost all other Lebanese, the life of Nisrine Taha has been upside down in recent years under the weight of the country’s devastating economic crisis. Fear of the future is eating her.
Five months ago, she was fired from her job at the real estate company where she had worked for years. Her daughter, who is 21, is unable to find work, forcing the family to rely on her husband’s monthly salary, which has lost 90% of its value due to the collapse of the national currency.
The family has not been able to pay rent for seven months, and Taha is worried that their landlord’s patience will not last forever. As the price of meat and chicken rose beyond their means, they changed their diet.
“Everything is very expensive,” she said.
Taha’s family is among hundreds of thousands of low-income, middle-class Lebanese plunged into sudden poverty by the crisis that began in late 2019 – a culmination of decades of corruption by a greedy political class affecting almost every sector of the economy looted it.
The Lebanese pound has lost just over 25% in value in recent weeks. Inflation and prices of basic goods have skyrocketed in a country that imports more than 80% of its basic goods. The purchasing power of salaries has dropped dramatically and savings have evaporated – all over the coronavirus pandemic and a huge explosion last August in Beirut’s port that damaged parts of the capital.
According to the World Bank, more than half of the population is now living in poverty, while an unworkable political crisis is a further collapse.
Alia Moubayed, managing director of Jefferies, a diversified financial services company, said the “sharp contraction in growth, coupled with hyperinflation and devaluation” had driven more people into precarious employment, raising unemployment levels and more than 50% of the population brought. poverty line, compared to an estimated third in 2018.
Lebanon has been without a government since its last resignation in August, with top politicians unwilling to compromise on forming a new cabinet that could pave the way for reform and recovery. Street violence and sectarian tensions increase.
“People are dying, and no one cares!” said Taha when she visited a cousin who owns a perfume shop on Hamra Street in Beirut. Both wore masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Hamra Street was once a famous shopping center, known for its boutiques, bustling cafes and theaters, amid the pandemic. On a recent day, many stores were closed, some due to closure measures, others permanently due to the economic crisis. Traders in those who are still open complain that they sell almost nothing.
Beggars asked passers-by for money. A woman and her child are sitting on the sidewalk next to a drawing on the wall with the words, “We are all beggars.”
“It can’t get any worse,” said Ibrahim Simmo, 59, who runs a clothing store. Sales decreased by 90% compared to previous years. He was unable to sell his winter stock during the nearly two-month-long virus lockout earlier this year, and now currency control is exacerbating matters.
Ibrahim Farshoukh, 28, said he barely pays the rent for his shop where he sells handmade leather bracelets and bags. Sometimes his wife stays behind as he enters the streets and tries to sell bracelets to passers-by. “The situation is unbearable,” he added.
The vast majority of the population is paid in Lebanese pounds, which means that their incomes continue to fall while prices rise and pensions evaporate. The crisis has also depleted foreign reserves, prompting serious warnings that the Central Bank will no longer be able to finance subsidies on basic commodities, including fuel.
Videos on social media show fist fights in supermarkets while shoppers try to come up with subsidized products like cooking oil or powdered milk. In one video, armed members of one of Lebanon’s intelligence agencies check ID cards in a supermarket before handing over a bag of subsidized rice.
People who once lived comfortably can now not pay school fees and insurance premiums, or even eat well.
“I do not remember the last time we ate meat. I can not afford it, ”said Taha, whose husband is an employee of the airport. The family’s diet now consists mainly of lentils, rice and bulgur, she said.
The currency collapse has forced some grocery stores, pharmacies and other businesses to strike temporarily as officials warn of growing food insecurity.
Nabil Fahd, head of the supermarket owners’ association, told the local MTV station that people store goods, which can no longer be in stock. Once something is sold out, store owners have to pay more in Lebanese pounds for new stock. We are “in a very, very serious crisis,” he said.
The price of bread, the most important staple food in the country, has increased twice in the past year – and then bakers reduced the weight of a pack of bread earlier this month without changing the price.
Taha blames Lebanon’s corrupt political class for bringing the small nation to near bankruptcy.
Assem Shoueib resigned from a leading newspaper in Beirut in 2000 and moved with his family to France, where he opened a Lebanese restaurant near Paris. The 59-year-old walked through Hamra Street on a recent visit and said he had made the right decision.
“It was clear that the country was collapsing,” he said.