Policy and Research Specialist at Information International Mohammad Chamseddine reassured that there is no famine looming in the horizon, noting that the traders have dollar but they are keeping it to sell it in black markets.

He noted that the traders are exerting pressures and blackmail, but the country is not headed towards disaster as some are saying.

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In a statement to LBCI’s Nharkom Said, Chamseddine revealed that 55% of the Lebanese people are poor. “One quarter of the Lebanese people cannot guarantee food with their income, while 30% of them can guarantee food without other needs, such as hospitalization,” he explained.

Concerning the issue of unemployment, the researcher said that more than 25% of the Lebanese are unemployed, adding that in case the crisis failed to be resolved soon, the unemployment and poverty rates will definitely increase. “The number of citizens who were recently laid off from their jobs is under 10 thousand workers.”

Tackling the issue of the banks, Chamseddine revealed that the banking sector makes up to $2 billion per year, pointing out that since 1993, the sector have made $23 billion; which means that the banks have to contribute to the resolution of the crisis facing Lebanon.

He also stated that the problems erupting between the Lebanese people and the banks are unprecedented, stressing that the measures taken by the banks to control the salaries and the foreign transfers are considered theft.

“Solutions exist but we need vision to implement them and emerge from the current crisis,” he noted.

Commenting on Lebanon’s public debt, he noted that in 1993, the public debt was 3 billion and the politicians vowed then that the upcoming budgets will settle the amount, but this never happened, leading the country to bear a debt of nearly $87 billion.

“106% of the state’s revenue is spent on salaries, wages and public debt,” he said, stressing that the political class that ruled the country all these years is either corrupt or a failure and this is why they must leave.