Dr. Nasser Saidi’s comments on Lebanon’s currency crisis appeared in the Bloomberg article titled “World’s Biggest Currency Crash Prompts Lebanon to Intervene Anew“, published on 2nd Mar 2023.

Comments are posted below.

Given Lebanon’s limited international reserves, the pound stands little chance of returning to stability any time soon, according to Nasser Saidi, formerly a minister of economy and a vice governor at the central bank.

It’s “failed policy, we have seen it before,” he said. “Whatever remaining money is at the central bank is being used to subsidize public employees.”

Previous such efforts to inject dollars only briefly shored up the pound.

“This operation will fail and is becoming more expensive because the economic cost is increasing,” Saidi said. “We are taxing the cash economy that is running into a hyperinflationary spiral.”

Dr. Nasser Saidi commented on Lebanon’s currency devaluation (to a new rate of L£15,000 from a fixed rate peg of L£1,507 to the dollar since 1997) at  in the FT article titled “Lebanon devalues official exchange rate by 90%” published on 1st Feb 2023.

The full article can be accessed at: https://www.ft.com/content/f37617e1-098b-459f-9502-50ffb50c6c0c

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Nasser Saidi, a former economy minister and ex-deputy central bank governor, called it a continuation of the “failed exchange rate pegging/fixing policy that has generated the biggest financial crisis in history”.

Saidi said that the new L£15,000 rate was “75 per cent below the effective market rate of L£60,000 as well as below the so-called Sayrafa rate of L£38,000”, the latter referring to the central bank’s exchange platform. “This just adds to the multiple exchange rates that lead to severe market distortions.”

Dr. Nasser Saidi’s comments on Lebanon’s devaluation appeared in the Bloomberg article titled “Lebanon Devalues, Still Leaves Pound Far Away From Black Market“, published on 1st Feb 2023.

Comments are posted below.

The central bank “is continuing with a policy of using the printing press, printing pound to buy dollars in the market, including through the Sayrafa platform,” said Nasser Saidi, a former minister of economy and a vice governor at the central bank. “The consequences are clear: accelerating inflation and depreciation of the pound in the market.”