Lebanon reverses bank decision that caused depositors panic

Lebanon’s Central Bank governor says depositors can go back to withdrawing money from their dollar deposits in the local currency at a rate two and a half times better than the official one

BEIRUT -- After public outrage and protests, Lebanon’s Central Bank governor said Thursday that depositors can go back to withdrawing money from their dollar deposits in the local currency at a rate two and half times better than the official one. The decision reverses an earlier one and comes a day after panicked depositors lined up outside cash machines to withdraw as much as possible before a suspension of the preferential rate was to take effect. The Central Bank had decreed the preferential rate earlier this year, before the country's highest administrative court ordered that it be temporarily suspended on Tuesday, pending a final court decision. Lebanon is in the grips of its worst ever economic crisis while members of the ruling elite have been unable to agree on a new government. The Lebanese pound, pegged for 30 years to the dollar at 1,515, is now trading at nearly 13,000.