3 years into a crippling financial crisis, Lebanon's central bank recently said a new exchange rate that effectively devalued the country's currency by 90%. The dramatic measure is meant to stabilize the free-fall in Lebanese pound and eliminate multiple exchange rates that currently exist, which is a key demand of the IMF for a bail-off package to Lebanon. So what happened to the Lebanese pound and why is the Lebanese economy doing so badly? After the end of the Civil War in 1990, the Lebanese accumulated debt to maintain the exchange rate of $1 to 1,500 Lebanese pounds. This happened despite the continuous instability of Lebanon because of the conflict in the South between his Wolland Israel in addition to a dysfunctional political system. Set in 2019, however, the Lebanese economy took many successive hits. Many Lebanese took to the streets because of the government's plan to increase taxes on gasoline and tobacco among other things. The protesters demand morphed from objections against the new taxes to cause to end the sectarian nature of the political system. Successive governments resigned without a complete end to the debt luck. First, Prime Minister Sadd Hariri submitted his resignation in October of 2019, then his replacement hasn't de-ab resigned as well. Today, the political crisis continues as a Lebanese parliament feels for the eleventh time to agree on the president. Another factor is the coronavirus. Lebanon, similar to other countries, had to close its waters towards incomeers and implement many restrictions and curfews on its people. That however, hit the average Lebanese very hard because the economy realized heavily on tourism. In 2019, for example, two million tourists visited Lebanon, keeping in mind that the population of the country at the time was nearly six million. That meant a decreased revenue from millions of Lebanese. The poverty rate became more than 55 percent because many social support services were cut in response to the debt crisis which left many with low assistance in the face of catastrophe. On top of all of that is the increased oil and gas prices in the international market. Lebanon has to import its oil so when the prices jumped over $100 a barrel in 2022, its economy was tremendously affected. Is there who for the Lebanese economy emits all of this despair? The future does not go well for the Lebanese economy and of course the living standards of the Lebanese. The sectarian government means that each sect looks for the interests of its followers or at least for the close circle of the political party. That means that the politicians look for their own interests and the public interest is lost in between. As for revenue, there are attempts at searching for natural gas in the Lebanese border of the Mediterranean but still there are no confirmation on how large the field is. That is of course if there is no worthy amount of natural gas. Finally, the Gulf countries headed by Saudi Arabia will not support Lebanon financially because of his will which leaves Lebanon with few options to address its economic crisis and the Lebanese citizen has to bear the brunt at the end of the day. Thank you so much for watching and don't forget to subscribe to the YouTube channel or follow on Facebook.