$100 million freed
to import raw materials

Central Bank is working

on a permanent solution

The Central Bank (BDL) has freed $100 million of the manufacturers’ own foreign currency funds deposited at the banking sector to finance imports of raw materials, said Imad Hoballah, Minister of Industry.

BDL will soon announce the procedures to apply the new decision.

Fady Gemayel, Chairman of the Association of Industrialists, said that this measure mainly targets industrialists who sell their products on the local market and who can’t transfer money abroad to pay for their imports of raw materials. Those who export their products are bringing fresh money to use for imports, he said.

This is a temporary measure. It covers only two weeks-worth of raw material imports. The industrial sector’s annual requirements to fund imports are $3 billion or $8 million per day, Gemayel said. He said that BDL is working on a sustainable solution to fund raw material imports. “The industrial sector’s annual output is $13 billion, $3 billion of which is exported,” he said.