Beirut
In the veterinary clinic, a sign at the checkout warns: “Payment in cash only.”
It has been more than a year since we no longer accept checks or bank cards.
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“Banks have restricted access to our cash and are no longer granting credit. We therefore do without their services”,
explains the veterinarian, who no longer has confidence in the banks since they imposed, at the end of 2019, restrictions on withdrawals and transfers so as not to admit their insolvency.
“Almost everything is now bought in dollars”
In the absence of access to bank liquidity, "cash" is king.
“My bank only authorizes me 10 million Lebanese pounds per month in cash
(equivalent to 400 dollars, editor's note), testifies Georges, who manages an SME of ten employees.
With it, we would have to pay salaries, suppliers, miscellaneous expenses… It's impossible.
Like many Lebanese, he therefore goes through the parallel market to obtain the Lebanese pounds necessary, for example, to pay VAT.
National currency...
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