蜜芽传媒

Around four-fifths of Lebanese families are now unable to properly feed themselves as rampant inflation has pushed the price of a weekly food bill to more than five times the minimum wage.

That's a warning from one academic as the Lebanese economy continues to collapse in what the World Bank has described as one of the planet's worst financial crises since the 1850s.

Power cuts are now routine, and some private hospitals have warned that they could run out of power in hours due to fuel shortages.

Nasser Yassin, head of the Crisis Observatory and a Professor of Policy and Planning at the American University Beirut, says many children are going to bed hungry, and many parents are going without food so their children can eat.

"We're now entering a new phase in the economic crisis... our estimate is that more than 80% of households are struggling to be food secure and we're still at the beginning of the crisis, we're not reaching the end of it.... It's the cost of political inaction."

(Photo: A baker prepares some street food in Beirut - but most people can no longer afford to buy his produce. Credit: AFP)

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