How prices have hit the moon

Fuel is expensive. Food is expensive. Rent is expensive. Everything, it would seem, has become expensive. Over recent years trips to the gas station, the supermarket and the landlord have morphed into a recurring nightmare of increasing prices, draining the pockets of the Lebanese. Add to this the sluggish growth in the economy and people are feeling the squeeze. “Everything has become so expensive recently it is completely crazy,” says Nayla Otrakji. Although she lives in a comfortable middle-class neighborhood in the Beirut district of Ashrafieh and her husband runs a successful engineering company, the rising cost of living is still felt in the home. “The amount we spend on food has increased so much. I have noticed the highest increase in the prices of dairy products,” she says before adding, “Now I make my own labneh and laban.” Priced from abroad While dairy products are largely produced locally, many