BEIRUT, May 24 (Alliance News):Large-denomination banknotes of 500,000 and 1,000,000 Lebanese pounds (LBP) will likely be issued soon in Lebanon, local media reported on Tuesday.
A joint session of parliamentary committees on Tuesday approved a bill permitting Banque Du Liban (BDL), Lebanon’s central bank, to issue notes worth more than 100,000 LBP in denomination, the state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported
. If the bill is passed in parliament, notes worth 500,000 and 1,000,000 LBP will be printed, said the report. After four years of economic crisis, the national currency has lost more than 98 percent of its value and the exchange rate on the parallel market is currently around 94,000 LBP to the dollar, over 62 times the pre-crisis official rate of 1,507.5 LBP, said the news website L’Orient Today in a report.
The proposed bill will merely solve the practical problem of carrying mass bundles of local banknotes, but have absolutely no impact on the value of the currency itself, it said. According to the BDL’s website, the central bank has issued banknotes in 14 denominations since its establishment in 1963.