Source: Sky News
I wrote Ikram Saab in Sky News Arabia website: Since the start of the crisis that struck the banking sector in Lebanon, and caused a lack of liquidity in banks and the failure to secure them for depositors in September 2019, the Lebanese rushed to save their deposits from melting, and then refrained from depositing their money in local banks, and most of them resorted to keeping it in their homes.
Homes in Lebanon witnessed a state of hoarding money away from banks, after the economic crisis led to the collapse of the value of the local currency, accompanied by a sharp rise in inflation and a great demand for the dollar, and keeping the green currency in homes became a common denominator for the Lebanese.
Lebanese experts estimate the amount of money stored in homes at about $10 billion, in order to resist any measures that might be issued by the Central Bank that would erode the value of savings.
Treasury trade
With the onset of the crisis with the banks, the trade in safes began to flourish, according to traders and buyers alike.
Ibrahim Abs, owner of a store selling safes in Beirut, told Sky News Arabia: “Our sales have increased by 50 percent over previous periods. Before the crisis, banks were our most prominent customers, but today their depositors are the ones who buy.”
Samer, a worker who works in an electrical appliance store in the Lebanese capital, added, “We receive dozens of customers who ask about the type of iron safes we have, including those who make their decisions quickly and buy, and those who go to come back the next day and buy.”
And he speaks to “Sky News Arabia”, saying: “We are currently displaying safes in the fronts of our stores, so that they are the first commodities that customers see when they enter, in order to facilitate the sale.”
Samer continues, “The prices of safes usually range between 70 and 250 dollars, and they are insured against fire and theft, and their weight varies between 7 and 400 kilograms. They are made of steel and lined with insulating materials against fire.”
A woman who was wandering around the markets looking for iron safes says that this method “is the only solution to keep money. It can be hiddenly installed in the wardrobe or anywhere else the owner chooses, to keep his money in it as a small depositor.”
And she added to “Sky News Arabia”: “After the banks closed their doors in our faces and withheld our money deposited with them under the pretext of lack of cash liquidity, keeping our money at home has become at the forefront of our concern.”
In recent months, Lebanon’s banks have witnessed incidents of gun threats from depositors who want to withdraw their dollar balances, while banks refuse to disburse them due to lack of liquidity.