Reuters
The Minister of Energy in the Lebanese caretaker government, Raymond Ghajar, said that his ministry cannot pay for the fuel needed to generate electricity after March, unless more funding is approved.
Ghajar said, “We are going into a very difficult situation, because if there is no fuel, there is no electricity,” indicating that he had asked President Michel Aoun and Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri to approve an emergency loan to a company. Government electricity, worth 1,500 billion Lebanese pounds ($ 996 million at the official exchange rate), to buy more fuel.
Ghajar said earlier this month that Lebanon usually keeps enough fuel for two months, as it is costly for the country to maintain strategic reserves of six months.
Lebanon is facing the biggest financial crisis since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war, and the Lebanese pound has lost 80% of its value against the dollar, although some official transactions are still taking place at the official Lebanese pound before the crisis, which is 1,500 pounds to the dollar, while the market value of the currency has decreased. To more than 9,000 liras.
Source: “Reuters”
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