Lebanon’s powerful central bank chief and its slide into crisis

For the past 27 years, Lebanon’s central bank has been headed by Riad Salameh. For almost all of his time in charge, Lebanon appeared to enjoy financial stability. But that has changed. The country is currently experiencing a severe economic crisis. One former senior Lebanese policy-maker blames Salameh’s policies for being deeply harmful to the country.

Georges Corm was Lebanon’s finance minister from December 1998 to October 2000. The economy’s collapse, he argues, was a consequence of