Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh held on Wednesday a press conference to update the Lebanese on the details of the ongoing financial crisis upon the request of PM Hassan Diab.
Salameh denied hiding the Central Bank budget’s data and issuing unilateral decisions, confirming abiding by law and transparently displaying the required facts and figures.
Salemeh pointed out there are no confidential spending decisions at BDL (Banque Du Liban), which publishes its budgets every 15 days, adding he handed the premier copies of BDL’s accounts on March 9.
“Central Bank has usable liquidity of $20.9 bn.”
“The Central Bank has not burdened the state with any deficit. However, it has achieved much revenues and has contributed through gold price gains to alleviate the state’s debt.”
Commenting on the publicly criticized financial engineering operations, Salameh said they helped gain time to enable the state to reform itself, which didn’t happen.
Salemeh stressed that keeping the stability of the lira exchange rate was supported by the government and the central bank, citing a difficulty in controlling the dollar exchange rate amid the scarcity of dollar banknotes.
Salameh said the Central Bank is collecting the dollar banknotes by dispensing the transfers in lira, which will allow the BDL to re-inject dollars in the market in a calculated manner.
“We reassure the depositors about their funds and believe the ‘haircut’ proposal is not necessary, as it scares depositors and delays the recovery of the banking sector,” Salameh said.
The Central Bank has prevented the bankruptcy of any bank, in order to protect depositors’ funds and has ordered banks to increase their capital by June 2020 at the latest, according to Salameh.
Salameh noted that the Central Bank controls 60% of the public debt due to be paid in Lebanese Lira, adding out of the $5.9 billion taken away from Lebanon, $3.7 billion were used to cover loans, and $2.2 billion were withdrawn in the form of cash from clients’ accounts.
Salameh added that the central bank is obliged to fund the government, adding what must be audited is the manner in which the funds have been spent.
Finally, Salameh underscored the independence of the central bank, pointing out that the law does not force the BDL to coordinate with the government every decision.
Source: Al-Manar English Website
