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Bou Ghantous addressed Salameh a series of questions, including: “Does the central bank lack liquidity in Lebanese pounds on what is the situation of its portfolio in foreign currencies, so it prints tons of Lebanese pounds to ensure the necessary liquidity to finance the increasing state expenditures, despite what this operation has caused? ” The collapse of the real value of the pound and the rise in inflation and speculation with the Lebanese currency? Is the decision to flood the market with the equivalent of 25 new tons of Lebanese pounds to offset the demand for the dollar, allowing depositors to dispose of their frozen deposits in dollars, provided that they withdraw it in Lebanese pounds at the exchange rate? electronic platform, provided that commercial banks then forcibly sell the dollars sold by depositors to the Central Bank?
And he asked: “Is it possible to make known to the Lebanese public opinion at what price the Central Bank buys these dollars from the banks, and what is the hidden profit rate that it provides them through what is called the engineering designation financial? Why and every time the governor of the Central Bank comes to us, in numbers? ” As for the assets and reserves in it and the financial engineering that it implements, the corrections are made immediately and the accuracy of these figures is questioned by everyone who deals with monetary, financial and economic matters?
He added: “About a month ago, it was announced that the reserves available in foreign currency at the Central Bank no longer exceed approximately 17 billion dollars, so the proposals to reduce the mandatory proportion of the reserve reached the point where some of those in power went so far as to threaten to allow themselves to use this reserve to maintain policies. ” The current support for many sectors, forgetting that the exchange reserve issuance is part of the citizens’ deposits in banks, the latter deposited in the Central Bank as insurance for their deposits in accordance with the Monetary and Credit Law. .
He stressed that “the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank are open to citizens about the reasons for the inflation of the monetary bloc in the Lebanese pound in this way. Is cash liquidity required to ensure the salaries of the sector’s employees and retirees? government, and the payment of state obligations to many sectors and institutions, despite the risks of excessive disbursement with Why should we take measures that would drastically raise inflation rates and allow a further, terrible and rapid collapse in the value of the Lebanese pound against the US dollar, so that everyone knows in advance that the dollar exchange rate will skyrocket, as the newly printed and traded Lebanese pounds will be lost? In the market, their digital value becomes mere colored and printed papers containing denomination numbers of worthless currency “.
Bou Ghantous concluded: “Our country needs a financial rescue package ranging from 20 to 25 billion dollars over the next five years, and the Central Bank, Lebanese banks and economic organizations alone have the capacity to insure them without resort to external loans and international credit institutions, since it is enough for the central bank to operate. The Ministry of Finance is responsible for hunting down even a part of the money stolen over decades and smuggled abroad and recovering it for the benefit of the treasury, and the international judiciary can be used for that. Banks and economic organizations must also reinvest a small part of their legitimate money, but smuggling and employed abroad, or even interest pumping “It is also possible to liquidate a large amount of goods in kind from banks, thus returning a small part to the owners of the quarantined warehouses, which will help turn the wheel of the country’s economy. “
And he warned against “the web that lies in the emission of the Lebanese, represented by the central policies that cover everything from waste in state institutions to financial engineering for the benefit of some private sector institutions, as well as the greed of the owners of banks and some heads of economic institutions, which will eventually lead to an upcoming social explosion. “
He concluded: “If the Central Bank figures are correct even once, and the statements of the Association of Banks and the owners of economic organizations are true, and the state decides, under internal and external pressure, to put an end to the losses , so allow the distribution of these losses to be fair between the state, the Bank of Lebanon and the banks instead of charging them only to the Lebanese people. “
