Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Riyad is driving his car while his wife is choosing the needs of the family after checking
00:07 the quality and prices.
00:08 The crisis forced him to balance the quality of goods and sometimes reduce the quantity
00:13 for the sake of quality.
00:15 His salary, which was estimated at about $4,000, is no more than $600 today.
00:21 It is a model of the family lords that formed in the previous middle class poverty column
00:27 until the financial crisis hit them.
00:30 I am a university professor and I am living on $4,000.
00:34 Now my salary is $600.
00:38 $600 is not enough for my family because I have young people and I have children.
00:44 I come to the supermarket here.
00:46 The prices of the supermarket are very high.
00:48 Everything is in fire.
00:50 Now I am looking for another job, a health worker, so I can support my family.
00:57 I have $100,000.
00:59 I want to buy apples and bananas.
01:01 What can I do?
01:03 You know, we are in a bad situation.
01:05 So the majority of Lebanese try to adapt to the new reality that is not similar to their
01:10 life about four years ago.
01:13 They rely on another job to balance the basic necessities of a decent life.
01:19 The life we used to live, I wish it would return.
01:22 What is happening is not right.
01:24 We used to live a luxurious life and the Lebanese were happy.
01:27 Now the situation is very difficult.
01:30 Everything is boiling again in the dollar.
01:33 It is boiling several times.
01:35 Once, twice, ten, seven times, but everything is accumulating.
01:38 Maybe something is said to be expensive from outside and something is added by the employees
01:43 and the citizens.
01:44 With Lebanon's record for rising food prices in the world ranking at 261,
01:51 the talk about rising food and consumer prices has become unjustified.
01:57 The Lebanese are unable to understand the reasons for its rise,
02:02 despite relying on the principle of pricing in dollars.
02:05 Lebanon is a country with corruption, smuggling, and no supervision.
02:10 Therefore, it is natural for prices to rise.
02:14 It is part of the confusion we are living in.
02:19 There is a problem in the country with the absence of financial policies.
02:22 Of course, there are other reasons for this rise.
02:25 It could be one of the reasons why the merchants in Lebanon are taking advantage of it to raise their prices.
02:30 One of them is global stagflation, which is a kind of economic inflation and constant inflation.
02:36 Therefore, prices are rising, but the Lebanese market is not being monitored.
02:44 Lebanon, which is ranked third in the world among the most expensive countries in terms of living
02:50 and rising living costs by 25.5% per month since the beginning of 2023,
02:58 is experiencing a civil uproar due to the constant wave of inflation that hits the sectors and commodities in the absence of supervision
03:06 that allows the corrupt merchants to manipulate prices and increase them as they please.
03:12 Elena Mrad, CNBC Arabia, Beirut