(Bloomberg) — Lebanon’s economic crisis is fast slipping out of control, driven by a currency collapse that’s decimating businesses and plunging families into destitution.
While politicians and bankers trade blame on the airwaves, the country’s pound has lost nearly 60% of its value on the black market in the past month, threatening to suck the economy into a hyper-inflation spiral. Food prices are rising so fast that the army took meat off its menus last week. The state-controlled price of a bag of flat-bread was raised by a third.
Blackouts are spreading as fuel runs out. Facing ruinous losses, well-known