BEIRUT, Oct. 14-- Economic deterioration in Lebanon and impoverishment of its citizens, even if not a revolution, will eventually lead to chaos and social explosion, analysts say. "The current economic situation will worsen and lead to turmoil. People will take to the streets and protests will grow," Sami Nader, director of Levant Institute for Strategic Affairs in Lebanon, told Xinhua. Nader explained that people are pushed into poverty and joblessness while the lack of basic services add to their anger. "Prices will go up with the rise in the U.S. dollars and the peg policy of the Lebanese pound to dollar is not sustainable anymore because reserves of the central bank are dwindling due to the big deficit in the balance of payments," he noted. On Friday, opposition party protestors broke into the parliament for the first time to demand new parliamentary elections, voicing their anger at the country's failing economy. In the past years, Lebanon has been facing severe economic challenges with the failure of successive governments to offer citizens basic services such as electricity, water, high-quality education system, as well as proper healthcare and infrastructure. The influx of Syrian refugees into Lebanon in the wake of the Syrian civil war in 2011 exacerbated the situation, causing many Lebanese people to lose their jobs because of the competition from much lower-paid Syrian workers. |