ESCWA, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, presented in a new report about the “falling” currencies of Lebanon and Sudan losing about 82% and 87% respectively, of their purchasing power against the US Dollar.
Between 2019 and 2021, price levels declined in most countries of the region in comparison with the U.S. but not in Lebanon where the economy and currency crashed, leading to massive inflation and the increase of the prices of goods and services.
The study was conducted on 13 countries in the region where price levels were compared to those in the United States.
“The report shows that Lebanon has registered the highest price level increase in the region with households required 5.5 times the amount of Lebanese pounds they used to pay in 2019 to get the same equivalence in US dollars,” reported ESCWA.
The result of the study, while devastating, does not come as a surprise to the Lebanese living the harsh effects of the inflation in Lebanon.
In July 2020, Lebanon made history with its hyperinflation, according to the Hanke-Krus World Hyperinflation Table, with an inflation rate exceeding 50% per month over a period of 30 consecutive days.
In August 2020, its inflation percentage rate reached 120%.
In November 2020, its inflation rate reached a high of 365%, which is 3 times its percentage rate of August 2020.
Lebanon hence became the 2nd most hyperinflated country in the world, right after Venezuela, and surpassing Zimbabwe, also according to Hanke’s Annual Inflation Rate model.
Studies and warnings by international experts and organizations, as well as world countries, have been numerous, sounding an alarm that is painfully felt among the Lebanese population yet unheeded by the ruling body.
The country has been left to its freefall as the ruling parties bustle with their opposing political-power agendas while the economic and financial crisis continues to dramatically worsen.
Many parents were unable this year to register their children in the 2022-2023 school year. Minors are sent to work instead in unsafe and little-paid jobs to help ends meet, and many parents find themselves compelled to only feed their children once a day.
Patients in Lebanon suffering from chronic diseases, like diabetes or cancer, can not get the full treatment they need, and many others can not even afford to get any treatment at all.
