Dollar shortage crisis in Lebanon spills into Syria
The Syrian pound's value plummeted against the US dollar after the Lebanese pound depreciated.
BEIRUT — An economic and financial crisis looms over Lebanon, the third-highest indebted country in the world in terms of debt-to-gross domestic product ratio, which stood at 151% in 2018.
“Given the large public debt … [Lebanon's] interest payments now exceed 9% of GDP,” the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said in a July report. The IMF also said, “Deposit growth in 2018 was the lowest since 2005 and the BdL [Bank of Lebanon] reserves have now decreased by around $6 billion since early 2018.”
