Lebanese pound

The pound or lira (ليرة لبنانية līra Libnāniyya; French: livre libanaise; abbreviation: LL in Latin, ل.ل. in Arabic, historically also £L, ISO code: LBP) is the currency of Lebanon. It was formerly divided into 100 piastres (or qirsh in Arabic) but because of high inflation during the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990) the use of subunits was discontinued. The plural form of lira, as used in relation to the currency, is either lirat (ليرات līrāt) or invariant, whilst there were four forms for qirsh: the dual qirshān (قرشان) used with number 2, the plural qurush (قروش) used with numbers 3–10, the accusative singular qirshan (قرشا) used with 11–99, and the genitive singular qirsh (قرش) used with multiples of 100. The number determines which plural form is used. All of Lebanon's coins and banknotes are bilingual in Arabic and French. From December 1997 through January 2023, the exchange rate was fixed at LL 1,507.50 per US dollar. However, since the 2020 economic crisis in Lebanon, exchange at this rate was generally unavailable, and an informal currency market developed with much higher exchange rates. On 1 February 2023, the Central Bank reset the currency peg at LL 15,000 per US dollar. By mid-March 2023, the "parallel market" rate had fallen to LL 100,000 per dollar. History of Lebanon#League of Nations Mandate (1850–1939) Until World War I, the Turkish pound was the currency used in the area. In 1918, after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the Egyptian pound was used. Upon gaining control of Syria and Lebanon, the French replaced the Egyptian pound with a new currency for Syria and Lebanon, the Syrian pound, which was linked to the franc at a value of LS 1 = 20 F. Lebanon issued its own coins from 1924 and banknotes from 1950. In 1939, the Lebanese currency was officially separated from that of Syria, though it was still linked to the French franc and remained interchangeable with Syrian money. In 1941, following France's defeat by Nazi Germany, the currency was linked instead to sterling at a rate of LL 8.83 = GBP1.