Lebanon puts its faith in the dollar amid economic meltdown

The Lebanese pound has lost 95% in value since late 2019, and now most restaurants and many stores are demanding to be paid in dollars.

Store displays advertising in Arabic that reads “Italian clothes and shoes for 9.99 $” in Beirut, Lebanon (Hassan Ammar/AP)

Businesses in Lebanon are increasingly leaning on one of the world’s most reliable assets, the US dollar, as a way to cope with the worst financial crisis in its modern history.

When Moheidein Bazazo opened his Beirut mini-market in 1986, during some of the fiercest fighting in Lebanon’s civil war, he did not expect it to thrive.