From: elie@hdtv.njit.edu (Elie I. Mourad)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.lebanon
Subject: Lebanese currency keeps declining.
Date: 9 Oct 92 07:34:06 GMT
Organization: New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, N.J.


BEIRUT, (OCT. 6) IPS - A two-day strike called for mid-October dramatizes the
weakening of the Lebanese pound in the face of rampant inflation. 
   The strike is a response to the two-tier economy of the country, in which
goods are priced in U.S. dollars while salaries for the most part continue to 
be paid in Lebanese currency. 
   Most consumer goods and food are imported and therefore have to be paid for
in foreign currency. As the Lebanese pound continues to fall rapidly in value,
consumer prices in terms of the pound are soaring. 
   While in February this year, a dollar exchanged for 879 pounds, and in May
for 1,600 pounds, on Oct. 3 the exchange rate was 2,450 pounds. 
   This almost tripled consumer prices in the same period, outstripping wage
increases. 
  In 1991 the minimum monthly wage of 75,000 pounds was equivalent to $81. Last
month it was increased to 118,000 pounds, but at the current exchange rate it 
is worth only $48. 
   The Confederation of Trade Unions (CTU) is alarmed by the situation. "It has
become necessary to adopt a mobile salary scale," CTU President Antoine Bechara
told IPS. The confederation has called out its 200,000 members on Oct. 13 and
14. 
 "This is the first step of a series of measures we shall take after Oct. 15,
when the new Parliament will start its mandate," said Bechara. 
   Some employers are trying to help their staff by paying them in dollars. "My
employees were losing money from month to month before I changed to dollars back
in march," says Salameh Hoshaimy, an architect who has a staff of 12. 
   According to Jonny Chamichian, a psychologist and expert in work management,
industrial sector employees are being paid in pounds while those in the trade
sector are paid partly in dollars, partly in pounds. Army personnel and civil
servants are also paid in pounds. 
  The plight of such employees is epitomized by the experience of Nada Obeid, a
young nurse at the state school for nurses in Beirut. Last year, her monthly pay
was equivalent to $120, but her current wage of 180,000 pounds is worth only
$75. 
   "How can I make ends meet with a salary almost cut in half?" she asks. 
   To give their income a little more stability, many employees exchange their
pounds for dollars immediately after getting paid. 
   The dual-currency economy forces shoppers to convert all prices into Lebanese
pounds before deciding which goods to buy. To make this easier, a supermarket in
the village of Dick el-Mehdi, northeast of Beirut, has equipped its shopping
trolleys with calculators. 
   The day's exchange rate is supplied to customers by the shops. Explains Randa
Ballat, a cashier at a supermarket in west Beirut, "We contact the bank every
morning, and then we give our clients the day's exchange rate." 
   Prices in restaurants, pubs and coffee shops are also given in dollars, as
are those in newspaper advertisements for cars, machines and office equipment. 
   Only bread, local agricultural produce and government services are priced in
pounds. 
Newsgroups: soc.culture.lebanon