LebGeeks

karimo

Member

Re: Lebanese lira to USD exchange

Excuse me but what Trip are we talking about that costs 20$ round trip?
A round trip flight Lebanon to Cyprus costs 20$?  Since when??

ryanair offers round trip flight from lebanon to cyprus for 20 euros

rolf

Member

Re: Lebanese lira to USD exchange

Excuse me but what Trip are we talking about that costs 20$ round trip?
A round trip flight Lebanon to Cyprus costs 20$?  Since when??

Since November (or October? I am not sure), low-cost airlines (Ryanair) started operating to Cyprus.

Yes Ryanair now flies from Beirut now.

Super cheap tickets seem to be gone for November, but there are some in December. Cheapest flights I could find were to Paphos, not Larnaca.

Johnaudi

Member

Re: Lebanese lira to USD exchange

Let's put the flight details aside (in fact, I will create a thread where we can discuss traveling shortly).
I'd highly appreciate it if anyone from abroad trying to withdraw from his LBP account using his credit card would let us know further details, as in how much was he able to withdraw and at what rate, I've had several mixed reviews about this.

For instance, at the airport, they took a 60 euro flat fee for each transaction of 300 euros (of which he can do three daily), whereas in the city, they took a 3-6 euro flat fee.

beezer

Member

Re: Lebanese lira to USD exchange

Supporting these black market exchanges is what's ruining the LBP. You think you're getting richer but you're just ruining the economy more and what used to cost 1,000 is gonna cost 2,000. So you gained nothing other than making those mafia exchanges richer.

Fight the urge and don't support this.

beezer

Member

Re: Lebanese lira to USD exchange

I've been able to withdraw and transfer USD without any issues (last week), banks won't let you withdraw if they slightly think you'll go to the exchange.

IMO, if they force all the exchanges to close, the LBP will stabilise within a day.

sero

Member

Re: Lebanese lira to USD exchange

if they force all the exchanges to close, the LBP will stabilise within a day.

So you think our economic crisis is due to the exchange shops?
if they force exchanges to close, suddenly we'll have billions of dollars available and LBP to USD rate will get back to 1500 (and within a single day, lol)?
Please read more on economics and understand how demand and supply works instead of just repeating what politicians are saying.

Kareem

Member

Re: Lebanese lira to USD exchange

In fact I think the banks are selling the USD in the black market and I have credible information / sources regarding that.

beezer

Member

Re: Lebanese lira to USD exchange

I'm not listening to any politicians, I'm seeing with my own eyes how exchanges make up their own rates based on two or three sources, who do they call to check on the rate? Not treasuries, banks or government institutions.

The economy is shit overall, yes, but the LBP is getting shittier because supposedly less dollars and more LBP. There's your supply and demand analogy. But there's only the so called less dollars because people are exchanging them. What ruined the banks in the states? People rushed to take their money out, Banks don't have cash at hand. (they're invested, loaned, but always secured) Sounds like you might know that, and this black market exchange could turn Lebanon into Venezuela.

Last edited by beezer (November 13 2019)

Johnaudi

Member

Re: Lebanese lira to USD exchange

Supporting these black market exchanges is what's ruining the LBP. You think you're getting richer but you're just ruining the economy more and what used to cost 1,000 is gonna cost 2,000. So you gained nothing other than making those mafia exchanges richer.

Fight the urge and don't support this.

I would have to disagree with you there.
By selling your USD, what you're doing is increasing the USD liquidity in the market, hence a bigger supply of the foreign currency.
Demands are quite high, which is why prices are still skyrocketing. Increasing supply regulates demand, reducing price increases.
You'd be endorsing these black market exchanges by buying USD with your LBP.
Ethical or not is another topic, but at times like these, everyone's trying to hunt.

samer

Admin

Re: Lebanese lira to USD exchange

who do they call to check on the rate? Not treasuries, banks or government institutions.

When those institutions get delusional and insist on a rate of 1500 but can't back it up with adequate liquity, the market starts setting its own rates, which leads to price discovery.

this black market exchange could turn Lebanon into Venezuela

Exchanges are merely the vultures scavenging the spoils of the lion. Yes they are opportunistic, but they serve an important role in the ecosystem. Whether you think what they are doing is ethical is one thing, but you can not seriously posit that they are the ones who hunted down the economy.

Kareem

Member

Re: Lebanese lira to USD exchange

One very important thing worth mentioning. Today, the SYP ( Syrian pound ) jumped from 505 SYP to 700 SYP per dollar.

No it's not a coincidence; it's most probably because " "سكرنا الحنفيه"

samer

Admin

Re: Lebanese lira to USD exchange

One very important thing worth mentioning. Today, the SYP ( Syrian pound ) jumped from 505 SYP to 700 SYP per dollar.

It would be helpful for you to mention where that price is quoted from, and what the trading volume at this price was.

Kareem

Member

Re: Lebanese lira to USD exchange

One very important thing worth mentioning. Today, the SYP ( Syrian pound ) jumped from 505 SYP to 700 SYP per dollar.

It would be helpful for you to mention where that price is quoted from, and what the trading volume at this price was.

I heard rumours on Twitter that the rate had massive jump in the last 2 days. I called the exchange office since I'm buying EUR lately and asked him about the SYP rate today.

He literally answered me : " the rate on monday was 530, yesterday it jumped to 600 and today we're at 690 SYP per dollar ".

Twitter post :

VincentKeyboard

Member

Re: Lebanese lira to USD exchange

That one is no-brainer. Quite a bit of foreigners work in Lebanon and they come from different countries. Many transfer portions of their income back home in forms of Dollars that gets exchanged into local currency. When Lebanon doesn't have enough dollars anymore (and that why Lebanon ran out to begin with), the recipient countries suffer.
"سكرنا الحنفيه" is very accurate.

The only thing the government can still do to salvage the situation is force exchanges to fix rates at 1 dollar => 1500LL and 1525LL => 1 dollar.

Last edited by VincentKeyboard (November 13 2019)

wollyka

Member

Re: Lebanese lira to USD exchange

You can check the daily rates here:
http://www.businessnews.com.lb/

Kareem

Member

Re: Lebanese lira to USD exchange

That one is no-brainer. Quite a bit of foreigners work in Lebanon and they come from different countries. Many transfer portions of their income back home in forms of Dollars that gets exchanged into local currency. When Lebanon doesn't have enough dollars anymore (and that why Lebanon ran out to begin with), the recipient countries suffer.
"سكرنا الحنفيه" is very accurate.

The only thing the government can still do to salvage the situation is force exchanges to fix rates at 1 dollar => 1500LL and 1525LL => 1 dollar.

A jump of 40% in few days gives you an idea about the amount of money that's been sent to their country.

I want to add that last saturday, Western Union Tayouneh branch was accepting transfers in LBP to USD to very specific countries ( Bangladesh, Philippines, Nepal, Sri-lanka, etc... ) at a rate of 1520.

Our housekeeper had to wait literally 5 hours in a queue.

You can check the daily rates here:
http://www.businessnews.com.lb/

Very useful thanks. I hope it's accurate.

Last edited by Kareem (November 14 2019)

beezer

Member

Re: Lebanese lira to USD exchange

Well, that's a big part of it isn't it. You go to the exchange, give them dollars, they sell them to people who then get them out of the country instead of keeping it here. This is why banks are limiting these transactions, so things don't get worse. I still believe if people didn't use those exchanges things would stabilize and go back to normal or close to it (in the 1500's) but if we keep giving them dollars and them giving them out to people leaving, we're digging ourselves in.

I remember in Canada I was only allowed to exchange money at the casino or at the border/duty free. Maybe Lebanon should implement something like that, or we switch to dollars once and for all lol.

Last edited by beezer (November 14 2019)

Kareem

Member

Re: Lebanese lira to USD exchange

Well, that's a big part of it isn't it. You go to the exchange, give them dollars, they sell them to people who then get them out of the country instead of keeping it here. This is why banks are limiting these transactions, so things don't get worse. I still believe if people didn't use those exchanges things would stabilize and go back to normal or close to it (in the 1500's) but if we keep giving them dollars and them giving them out to people leaving, we're digging ourselves in.

I remember in Canada I was only allowed to exchange money at the casino or at the border/duty free. Maybe Lebanon should implement something like that, or we switch to dollars once and for all lol.

Well, according to the ILO, an estimated number of 300,000 Syrian workers were located in Lebanon before the outbreak of the Syrian crisis. So you can imagine the number after the outbreak.

If you do the math, and assume that 90% of them are getting paid in LBP the minimum wage of 500,000 LBP, which is an approximation, that's roughly 150 billion of  LBP a month or 100 million dollars ( 1500 LBP / usd ) and a 1.2 Billion dollar a year.

We're still assuming that the number of workers is 300,000 ( which IMO is much higher) and taking into consideration the minimum wage.

I did not take into consideration the SYP coming from Syria that is being converted to USD and sent back. This alone is very detrimental to the economy, liquidity and the stability of the LBP exchange rate.

We're talking here about more than 4 Billion dollars per year that's being transferred outside the country to Syria alone. And no, I'm not exaggerating.

TheIlluminative

Member

Re: Lebanese lira to USD exchange

Wow, never knew the flight is so cheap to Cyprus. It makes sense actually to buy a small flat there and come to Lebanon twice per month or so if it's that cheap.

Do we need visa to get to Cyprus? Is it easy, etc?

Guitaret

Member

Re: Lebanese lira to USD exchange

Do we need visa to get to Cyprus? Is it easy, etc?

Someone told me that for the Turkish side in Cyprus, you just need a Lebanese passport but I cannot confirm this.
Having said that, please be advised that taxi fares there are very expensive.

TheIlluminative

Member

Re: Lebanese lira to USD exchange

Do we need visa to get to Cyprus? Is it easy, etc?

Someone told me that for the Turkish side in Cyprus, you just need a Lebanese passport but I cannot confirm this.
Having said that, please be advised that taxi fares there are very expensive.

Yes North Cyprus you don't need a visa, as it's considered a Turkish side. But would like to get to Paphos with that cheap ticket ;)

rolf

Member

Re: Lebanese lira to USD exchange

Cyprus is part of the EU

elserge82

Member

Re: Lebanese lira to USD exchange

Be careful, and make sure your card works abroad before traveling. Banks are aware of the way mentioned earlier. They took a measure by canceling international transactions.

Tech Guru

Member

Re: Lebanese lira to USD exchange

Official BDL Rate Is Still stable :

Sell:  1517
Buy:  1515

Which the Lebanese Banks Association follows.

The Problem is :

1-  A "Dollarized"  economy where many services /  commodities are priced in USD . Example : Prepaid Mobile Cards ,  ISPs Prepaid Cards ..

2-  Irregulated Exchange market  , black market , with weak actions taken to counter high exchange rate - for years.

3 - Billions of Dollars were transfered  from the Lebanese Banks to the Syrian regime ,  to stablize further devaluation of SP infront of USD. The Dollars /  LBP rate exchange rate witnessed irruption and started before the Revolution.

4-  Banks are afraid with further draw , added due to recent instability, which affect their liquidity. They took the draw measures ( limits , ceilings ,  transfers limits ..etc)

Last edited by Tech Guru (November 18 2019)

Johnaudi

Member

Re: Lebanese lira to USD exchange

In case someone missed it, he's been a big figure to me and several of my friends, Nassim Nicholas Taleb recently came back to Lebanon.
His conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un9i-5pwOUA