by Dana Halawi
BEIRUT, March 10 (Xinhua) -- Inaam Ismail, a 52-year-old mother of two living in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, is having difficulty picking affordable food for the coming holy month of Ramadan, as her family has been tight on money due to the country's continued financial crisis.
"Shopping for Ramadan this year is very challenging as prices have gone up remarkably, and our family income shrank following the financial crisis and collapse of the Lebanese pound," Ismail, an employee at a factory, told Xinhua while comparing prices of similar products.
Ismail, whose monthly salary is about 600 U.S. dollars, said her husband, who serves in the army, has witnessed a sharp drop from 1,600 U.S. dollars per month to 160 dollars after the local currency's collapse.
"How can I secure healthy food for my family for this whole month?" said Ismail.
Ferial Hamaoui, a mother of three, is a part-time teacher at a university in Lebanon. She told Xinhua that her family now relies on support from her brother, who works in Africa, as her husband's work is facing challenging times.
"We used to invite our family and friends at least three to four times during Ramadan every year, but we can no longer afford it," said Hamaoui.
Hamaoui said she is forced to reduce the consumption of juices and cheeses during Ramadan and can only afford to eat meat and chicken once a month.
"The financial crisis deprived us of celebrating Ramadan and feeling the joyful atmosphere in this holy month," she said.
Lebanon has been in tough times since the financial crisis started in 2019, causing the collapse of the national currency by over 90 percent and plunging around 80 percent of the Lebanese population into poverty.
During the crisis, thousands of public sector workers have been paid meager wages insufficient to cover necessities. Social assistance programs are almost non-existent.
People's suffering was made worse by the restrictions imposed by commercial banks on withdrawals of bank deposits, depriving citizens of their long-time savings.
A monthly economic publication by Credit Libanais stated that Lebanon's annual inflation rate in 2023 reached 221.34 percent, with food prices increasing by 207.6 percent.
"Consumer spending in Lebanon's supermarkets dropped by over 50 percent after the crisis," Nabil Fahd, head of the syndicate of supermarket owners, told Xinhua.
According to Adnan Rammal, representative of the trade sector in the Economic and Social Council, Lebanese people changed their consumption habits as the size of the economy shrank and wages dropped.
"Before the crisis, the average salary stood at around 10,000 dollars yearly, but now it has dropped to around 3,000 dollars, which means that people lost around 60 percent of their purchasing power and therefore, the quality and quantity of the items consumed will go down," he told Xinhua.
Anis Abou Diab, a professor of economy at the Lebanese University, told Xinhua that Ramadan in Lebanon is challenging this year, as commodities prices further increased by around 20 percent since the beginning of the year due to the rise in shipping costs, which is caused by Yemen's attacks in the Red Sea. ■
