The paradox of the Lebanese pound’s recent stability

Lebanon’s central bank Banque du Liban has achieved 12 months of exchange rate stability. Foreign currency reserves have recently clawed back above $10 billion. At the one-year mark of Wassim Mansouri’s reign as acting governor, economist Layal Mansour lauds his disciplined implementation of a quasi-currency board solution but urges this solution’s full and formal adoption.   The Lebanese aptitudes for international trade and money dealings have been developed since Phoenician times. Today, however, it borders on delusion to defend the Lebanese pound as a national currency with strong exchange value. As a matter of fact, in recent rankings of 180 fiat currencies in the world, the Lebanese pound (LBP) was the least valued in terms of how many units of a currency it takes to obtain one US dollar (USD).  As everyone living in our country experiences on daily basis throughout the past year, it requires more than 89,500 LBP to