{"id":23054,"date":"2018-11-24T07:23:39","date_gmt":"2018-11-24T07:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=23054"},"modified":"2018-11-24T07:23:39","modified_gmt":"2018-11-24T07:23:39","slug":"black-friday-reveals-lebanese-concern-about-political-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=23054","title":{"rendered":"Black Friday reveals Lebanese concern about political crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nBEIRUT: \u201cEvery day is Black Friday in Lebanon.\u201d The term Black Friday in the Lebanese vocabulary has a different meaning when it comes to purchasing power.<\/p>\n

Ghada Buqshan, a Lebanese woman, told Arab News that she was among the first to go shopping on Black Friday in order to buy clothes at reduced prices for her children.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cI was shocked to see that the shops have manipulated the concept of Black Friday and reduced the prices of selected products only, while keeping the rest of their stock at normal prices.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I go shopping on this particular day, it is because my purchasing power has declined due to a decline in my husband\u2019s work, so I try to save money, but the joy of shopping is always there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The markets in Beirut are not showing unusual trading signals even though the Beirut Traders Association has made Black Friday last for three days in an attempt to attract the largest number of shoppers.<\/p>\n

Ahmed, the owner of one of the best women\u2019s clothing stores in Beirut, said: \u201cThere are many reasons for the decline in sales. Whenever the political situation in Lebanon worsens, the markets freeze.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition to that,\u201d he continued, \u201cBlack Friday coincides with the end of the month when families have spent most of their monthly salaries without leaving much to be spent on luxuries. Clothes have become a luxury though food, drink, rent and school fees are all priorities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The manager of another store, who wanted to remain anonymous, pointed out, \u201cThe purchasing power in Lebanon is declining year by year.\u201d He explained that the store\u2019s customers were mostly people on minimum wage as well as affluent individuals.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cLebanese customers buy specific items which have reduced prices, while non-Lebanese customers spend large sums.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Saudi woman who was carrying many shopping bags seemed to be in a hurry while shopping in Beirut with her daughter said the market atmosphere was good and the prices were \u201cvery reasonable.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Nada Hamed, a Lebanese woman who will soon travel to Australia, said: \u201cMy purchasing power is like everyone else\u2019s; it gets affected by crises, causing my desire to shop to decrease.\u201d<\/p>\n

Protests against the deteriorating economic situation were translated by activists, who started petitions on social media websites to call for a demonstration in the vicinity of the National Museum of Beirut, During the demonstration, people carried banners that condemned \u201cthe quota in power\u201d and \u201ccorruption.\u201d They also chanted against senior officials and \u201cthe ruling mafia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Economist Ghazi Wazni explained that the decline in demand on Black Friday \u201creflects the great concern leading people to refrain from making purchases amid this ambiguous political situation which has been a deadlock.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThis year, economic activity dropped by 25 percent, and the trade sector was counting on the two months of November and December, during which several holidays and events take place, making them represent 30 percent of the economic activity in Lebanon. However, it seems the political crisis associated with not forming a government has been worrying people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wazni pointed out that more than 35 percent of the Lebanese people are poor, while the middle class does not exceed 40 percent of the population and affluent families represent 25 percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems the political crisis has created economic stagnation and sent many establishments into bankruptcy, which has led to economic and political suffering of 75 percent of the Lebanese population,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The formation of the new government is expected to lead to the implementation of reforms. However, the formation of the new government is still pending due to the existing political problems.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEIRUT: \u201cEvery day is Black Friday in Lebanon.\u201d The term Black Friday in the Lebanese vocabulary has a different meaning when it comes to purchasing power. Ghada Buqshan, a Lebanese woman, told Arab News that she was among the first to go shopping on Black Friday in order to buy clothes at reduced prices for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":23055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}