Lebanese Banks Re-open after Two-Week Hiatus

Lebanese banks opened on Friday for the first time in two weeks following a wave of protests which led to the resignation of prime minister Saad Hariri.

After protests subsided on October 30, Lebanon's Association of Banks said: "The banks would reopen as previously announced on Friday to provide “pressing and fundamental needs” including salary payments,"

Lebanese analysts and bankers have cited their concern about a rush by depositors to withdraw their savings or transfer them abroad when the banks reopen.

Lebanon has the third-highest debt level in the world, after Japan, and Greece.

Boiling Point 

Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to streets of Beirut on Oct. 17, rejecting the government’s plan to impose new taxes on tobacco, gasoline, and some social media telecommunication software such as WhatsApp.

The new taxes arrives at a time when these citizens can no longer afford the cost of living, unemployment and poor public services.

They protested against the deterioration of living conditions and the poor economic situation of the country, and voiced their anger at the cabinet’s members and accused them of corruption and mismanagement, calling on the government to quit, and chanting: “Revolution!” and “Thieves!”

The protests are seen the biggest since the garbage crisis sparked in 2015.

Despite Hariri had resigned, however, Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun asked last Wednesday the cabinet to continue in a caretaker role until a new government is formed.

Hariri presented his resignation to President Michel Aoun at Baabda Palace, after reaching what he called a dead end.