The Lebanese liquidity crisis is an ongoing financial crisis affecting the Middle Eastern nation of Lebanon, starting in August 2019, which further exacerbated by both the COVID-19 pandemic in Lebanon (which began in 2020) and the 2020 Beirut port explosion. The fall of the exchange rate caused the 2019–2021 Lebanese protests, which ultimately resulted in the resignation of the prime minister and his cabinet. After the resignation occurred, the COVID-19 pandemic forced additional businesses to close their doors and to lay off their employees. On 1 June 2021, the World Bank released a report which warned that the economic crisis in Lebanon would risk becoming one of the three most severe since the mid-19th century, if its "bankrupt economic system, which benefited a few for so long" weren't reformed.