Ahmad Hoteit, head of the Millers Syndicate, stressed that the basis of our problem is Lebanon’s economic crisis, which started in 2019.
Regarding the solutions that were approved by the Parliament on Tuesday, Hoteit said that these are “prosthetic solutions, not strategic or radical.”
“Within 10 days, the bread market will almost return to its normal state,” he said. “This will create the appropriate environment to lift subsidies on the flour.”
With the lifting of subsidies on the flour, he’s now expecting that each bundle is going to be sold for 35,000 or 40,000 Lebanese Lira.
One of the main causes of the crisis, according to him, is that “today we have a million and a half Syrian refugees, so instead of spending money and flour subsidies on 4 million people; we’re spending it now on 6 million,” he said.
Since the start of the Syrian war, Lebanon has sheltered on its land the highest number of Syrian refugees in the world while it has been the least equipped among all other hosting and non-hosting countries to handle the humanitarian burden.
It remains that the crises crippling Lebanon now and these past three years are rooted in the mismanagement and negligence of the ruling body, accumulated through decades, across all ministerial sectors.
Lebanese officeholders tend to take all their time to decide to tackle the country’s issues, implement reforms, agree on essentials, adjust laws, conduct critical investigations, such as the Beirut Blast case, and even form a much-needed government.
Related: Lebanese Parliament Just Approved $150 Million Wheat Loan
