Lebanon to devalue currency by 90% on Feb. 1: Central bank chief

BEIRUT: Lebanon will adopt a new official exchange rate of 15,000 pounds per US dollar on Feb. 1, Riad Salameh, the central bank governor, said. 

The new rate marks a 90 percent devaluation from its current official rate. The shift from the old rate of 1,507 to 15,000 is still far off the parallel market, where the pound was changing hands at around 57,000 per dollar on Tuesday.

The change will apply to banks, Salameh said, leading to a decrease in the equity of the institutions at the center of the country’s 2019 financial implosion.