Head of Central Bank steps down in economic crisis

ABC NEWS (Australia)

The head of Lebanon’s Central Bank has stepped down. He's been widely blamed for the collapse of the country's economy. The country is experiencing soaring inflation and the currency has lost 98 per cent of its value. At the same time with cost-of-living pressures biting it's getting harder for the Lebanese community here in Australia to offer financial support to friends and family back home.

Transcript

00:00 There's an inflation rate at about 244% and then you're looking at the banking sector

00:07 losing about up to $70 billion and counting, so it keeps going on.

00:12 The problem is that for the past three to four years when the currency started crashing,

00:17 there's been no reform along the line.

00:20 There's this unwillingness among the political elites to actually find a solution.

00:25 And there's been recent calls by the IMF, by the World Bank, et cetera, saying if you

00:29 need to acquire any sort of funding from the international community, the government really

00:33 needs to do some serious reform.

00:36 But there's no reform along the line, which just makes it, it's like they deliberately

00:40 don't want to have a solution.

00:41 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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