Several injured in Lebanon protests over plunging currency

Dozens of angry Lebanese took to the streets to denounce the pound’s depreciation and ‘difficult living conditions’.

Several protesters were injured in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli on Saturday in demonstrations held amid escalating tensions over the government’s decision to further slash the tumbling currency’s value. The pound has been pegged to the dollar at 1,507 since 1997, but the country’s worst economic crisis in decades has seen its unofficial value plummet. On Saturday, money changers told AFP news agency it was trading at 17,300-17,500 to the greenback on the black market, while some social media users said it had fallen as low as 18,000.