Lebanon’s Diab pitches cash cards for poor. Cue the backlash
Al Jazeera
Caretaker Prime Minister Diab fears governing parties won’t support his cash card plan to replace expensive subsidies.
Beirut, Lebanon – Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Hasan Diab says his government wants to introduce a cash card programme to offer struggling citizens a safety net for buying essential items after subsidies that drain the country’s foreign reserves are withdrawn. But he fears Parliament and Lebanon’s central bank will not throw their support behind the proposal. Lebanon subsidises fuels, medicines, wheat, and other basic food items that the central bank imports at the official exchange rate of 1,507 Lebanese pounds to $1 – an obsolete rate that has not changed despite the country’s deep economic crisis that ignited in October 2019. Meanwhile, at market exchange rates, the pound has lost some 85 percent of its value against the dollar.More Related News