Five Arab countries suffer from collapse in currency value

Residents of five Arab countries, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and Sudan, are under the influence of a gradual deterioration of the local currency against the dollar, which contributes to the rise in prices raw materials and threatens hunger and the crushing of the poor classes.

As Iraq and Sudan try to control the dollar exchange rate, without changing the poor living conditions that have been naturally affected, Yemen and Syria appear threatened by famine, while Lebanon continues to decline. collapse because of popular protests.

The dollar exchange rate has reached the limits of 10,000 Lebanese pounds per dollar.

As the Syrian pound recorded another record deterioration in its value on the parallel market on Tuesday, hitting the four-thousand-dollar mark in a country where the conflict entered its tenth year this month, according to the report. traders told AFP.

In Yemen, Yemeni Prime Minister Maeen Abdul-Malik warned on Monday that his country’s continued currency collapse portended “famine”.

During a telephone conversation with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Abdul Malik reviewed the difficult economic and humanitarian conditions in Yemen, and the urgent needs required to support the economy and the stability of the national currency, and warned that the continued currency collapse heralds the onset of a “famine” which needs to be combined with efforts to address it quickly.

In Iraq, the federal government decided at the end of 2020, to raise the value of the dollar against the Iraqi dinar from 1200 dinars to the dollar to 1450, to cover the deficit of the 2021 budget which has not yet been approved.

The government’s decision by the Central Bank has notably contributed to the rise in prices, particularly of foodstuffs, as Iraq relies on imports to secure its goods.

In Sudan, the Sudanese currency has stabilized over the past two weeks at 376 pounds due to the pound float policy recently carried out by the transitional authority after the dollar exchange rate deteriorated from frighteningly in the last six months of 150 pounds in August and continued to rise until it hit 420 pounds in January 2021, which led to a mad rise in the prices of consumer goods, and it turned out to be reflected in the lives of citizens and led to many protests due to high inflation.

Source: agencies

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