Lebanon to raise fuel prices in bid to ease crippling shortages

Lebanese leaders hold emergency meeting, decide to change the exchange rate used to price petroleum products.

Fuel prices in Lebanon are expected to double after the country’s leaders decided on Saturday to change the exchange rate used to price petroleum products in a bid to ease crippling shortages. Amounting to a partial reduction in fuel subsidies, the rise will mean more hardship in a country where poverty levels have soared during a two-year-long financial meltdown that has wiped more than 90 percent off the value of the Lebanese pound. The decision was made at an emergency meeting attended by the president, central bank governor and other officials over a fuel crisis that has left Lebanon in chaos, paralysing basic services and sparking daily melees as people scramble for fuel.