Throughout the social media sites in Lebanon, specialized accounts allow citizens to exchange personal possessions for food and other necessary commodities they need, with liquidity scarcity in their hands, in light of the worst financial crisis in the country in decades.
Many Lebanese found themselves unable to secure their basic needs, including food, as the economic crisis led to the collapse of the lira exchange rate against the US dollar, and an unprecedented rise in prices.
The Corona pandemic deepened the living conditions of the Lebanese, as thousands lost their jobs.
The economic crisis was reflected in the prices of basic and foodstuffs in the market, such as vegetables, fruits, cleaning materials, canned foods and foods, and even affected homemade materials due to price manipulation and the parallel market recovery of the currency.
The Consumer Price Index indicates an increase of more than 55 percent from the beginning of October 2019 to the end of May.
Hassan Hassaneh, founder of the "Lebanon Bartering" group via Facebook, conveyed his experience of the barter he gained while in Canada in 2010, during the global economic crisis to establish this group.
Hassan said in an interview with Anatolia, that the establishment of the group came as a result of the scarcity of liquidity in Lebanon, the deterioration of the exchange rate, the closure of many institutions, and thus the increase in unemployment.
He added that "the group is an initiative aimed at achieving interdependence among the Lebanese, in order to exchange their secondary objectives for essential basic matters."
Hassan added, "The volume of interaction and response to the initiative came above expectations."
Pascal Mahfoud, one of the group's participants, says the need prompted her to ask to trade old clothes for her two-year-old for milk and food.
Abdel Rahman Fakhr El Din joined the "Lebanon Bartering" group, at the invitation of a friend via Facebook, according to what he reported to Anatolia.
Fakhruddin decided to display his old clothes on this platform, and to provide them for free to those who needed them at no charge.
The economic analyst, Mahasin Mursal, believes that the idea of barter "indicates the existence of a severe economic crisis" in Lebanon.
It considers that this "heralds the approach of a social explosion, and the increase in crime rates, whether it is theft or pickpocketing."
Mursal estimates that 60 to 80 percent of the Lebanese are unable to obtain the minimum amount of food due to the inflation.
Lebanon is suffering the worst economic crisis since the end of the civil war (1975-1990). On October 17th, popular protests sparked economic and political demands.
And the collapse of the exchange rate of the lira accelerated in recent months, touching the market at the threshold of 9 thousand pounds for the dollar by the end of last June, before it improved a little but remained hovering around 7 thousand.
While no quick and serious procedural solutions have been missed so far to confront the accelerating economic crisis in inflation, the statistics centers said that between one million and two million citizens live below the poverty line, i.e. 50% of the Lebanese people.
News source: Anatolia Agency
