VincentKeyboard wrote1) Even if Cedars price went up by 500LL, did the filter price really go up by 500LL? And even if it did, why not manufacture them locally?
Because they are taking advantage ot it.
VincentKeyboard wrote
3) Legumes and fruit are also produced in Lebanon and so is wood. I know of Maarawi wood. We don't need to import those. The issue with farmers is that they are being screwed over by marketers. The distributors who sell at wholesales prices to local shops make more profit than farmers.
The supply isn't enough begin with; you also need enough water, import pesticides etc...
I'm doing my apartment and I was talking to my carpenter; there's no local wood in Lebanon, not even MDF. There used to be. 25 years ago ( Ghandoor ) but ever since the war, it's being imported. Even Raymond Maarawi doesn't have local wood, he's trading.
That's why my carpenter is asking for USD instead of LBP.
VincentKeyboard wrote
Anyway, the best way to fix this is to bring down the dollar price back to 1500LL and increase wages again so people can afford to settle their bills at old US dollar value. If you have a decade experience in a domain, don't settle for 1,000,000LL only. If someone can't afford to pay you enough to live by, it's likely they are not running a sustainable business and you may not have a job there in 5 years to begin with. it's as simple as that.
What do you mean by increase wages ? I don't agree with you at all as it will cause more inflation. You do realize that the "سلسلة الرتب والرواتب " was a huge mistake and detrimental to the economy since the idiots ruling the country didn't really plan for it the right way.
Look at the tuition fees, everything got more expensive. You can't bring the dollar back to 1500 LL if you DON'T HAVE ENOUGH LIQUID CASH and if you can't control the USD outflow.
A very funny scenario is that our concierge salary is $600 USD which is equivalent now to 1,300,000 LL whereas my friend's sister who's graduated from LAU two years ago is making 1,150,000 LL a month at Blom Bank.
That's the chaos and that's why people are taking advantage of the situation to increase the prices even more because they feel they are making less money than they used to.