Central Bank

“You can take it to the bank,” is an idiomatic expression commonly uttered by someone – usually a politician or manly man with business power – to express a very …

With Lebanon going through hyperinflation, some economists have deemed the establishment of a currency board (CB) necessary to help curb inflation. To better assess the possible establishment of a CB, …

Finance is a complicated topic to understand. The jargon and math don’t help. Top employees of Lebanese lending institutions have admitted to Executive that even some bankers cannot define an …

Banque du Liban (BDL), Lebanon’s central bank, makes a curious claim on its website. Under “Monetary Overview” in the “About Us” section, the bank says that, beginning in 2013, it …

There is a deep rooted intuition or cultural knowledge that monetary power is extremely risky. Long before things like fiat money and central banking made their first appearances, this cultural …

“The overall duty of the [Lebanese Central] Bank shall be the safeguard[ing] of currency as fundamental guarantee for permanent economic and social development, and more specifically: – safeguarding a sound Lebanese currency …

It was the financial markets’ first big surprise of the year. In January 2015, the Swiss National Bank (SNB), the Alpine republic’s central bank, scrapped its 1.20 ceiling that limited …

When the economy slows, unemployment rises and consumption slumps, smart policymakers blow the dust off their Keynesian economics books and try to figure out which amount of government expenditure coupled …

Subsidies are always tricky and generally dangerous. Benefits are impossible to predict with certainty and unintended consequences range from valuation bubbles and boosts of inflation to loss of competitiveness. Governments …

As cities go, Beirut has every reason to be regarded as the grand dame of regional urbanity — a proud dowager that stands out among Arab metropolises as queen of …