Beirut, Feb. 16, (dpa/GNA) - Dozens of Lebanese on Thursday attacked several banks in the capital Beirut amid anger over an economic crisis and a further devaluation of the local currency against the dollar.
Protesters threw stones at windows of the banks and burnt tyres at their doors to protest their closure and limits on desperate depositers’ ability to withdraw their savings.
“They (banks) stole my life savings. We are hungry and they are closed. They do not care about us,” shouted one woman as she hurled stones at a bank in Beirut’s Badaro Street.
Frustration at they way banks are functioning in the small Mediterranean country grows as Lebanon is mired in a deepening economic crisis.
Since the banks closed last week, people have been forced to stand in long queues for hours to withdraw a few hundred dollars in cash from ATM machines.
Banks in Lebanon have applied strict withdrawal limits on foreign currency assets since 2019.
The curbs mean many depositors’ savings are frozen, leaving most of them struggling to make ends meet. Most Lebanese have deposits in banks in the US dollar.
Last week, the Lebanese Bank Association announced an open-ended strike to protest a court ruling that ordered a bank to pay one of its depositors back in full.
Banks insist they cannot afford to pay every depositor in full.
Since the beginning of the week, the Lebanese pound has fallen to a record low against the US dollar and was trading at more than 78,000 to one US dollar for the first time since the economic crisis began in 2019.
Before the crisis, the Lebanese pound used to trade at 1,500 against the dollar.
The Lebanese currency has lost more than 90% of its value since 2019.
GNA