Debt-ridden Lebanon faces an economic “catastrophe”, Prime Minister Hassan Diab said on Wednesday as his newly unveiled cabinet met for the first time.
The U.S. dollar reached 2,000 Lebanese pounds at exchange shops around the country after hitting a record of 2,500 pounds to the dollar last week.
The official rate remained at 1,507 pounds to the dollar.
A wave of panic and anger swept the public as the pound with a fixed value to the dollar for more than two decades, sank in value. It fell more than 60% in recent weeks on the black market.
The economy has seen no growth and flows of foreign currency dried up in the already heavily indebted country that relies on imports for most basic goods.
“Today we are in a financial, economic and social dead-end,” he said in remarks read by a government official after the new cabinet’s inaugural meeting in Beirut.
