The Central Bank of Lebanon (BDL) announced in a statement on Monday a 3,900 Lebanese Pounds as an exchange rate for food industry importers and manufacturers.

Member of Parliament Nicolas Nahhas said on Monday that a capital control draft bill is ready to be sent to the Finance and Budget parliamentary committee after introducing some changes based on suggestions by the International Monetary Fund.

In remarks to the Voice of Lebanon radio station, the MP said: “The new text of the capital control law proposal is ready after adding some ideas and taking into account the comments of the International Monetary Fund.  The draft law will be submitted soon to the Finance and Budget Committee."

Interior Minister Mohammed Fahmi stressed the government’s determination to face the campaigns against it, assuring that PM Hassan Diab's cabinet is “staying until further notice,” al-Joumhouria daily reported on Monday.

Lebanon on Sunday hosted its annual music festival in the ancient northeastern city of Baalbek without an audience for the first time, a move organizers dubbed "an act of cultural resilience" to the coronavirus pandemic as well as the country's unprecedented economic meltdown.

Held amid soaring Roman columns, the Baalbek International Festival was founded in 1956. This year, it's being broadcast on local and regional TV stations and livestreamed on social media in an effort to spread "unity and hope."

Arab Tawhid Party leader Wiam Wahhab on Sunday hit out at Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat and warned him against the “use of arms” in the Chouf and Aley regions.

“The use of arms in Mount Lebanon is prohibited and do not end your life in this manner. We love you and respect your intelligence and that of the people, but do not use your brain to underestimate people’s intelligence. We are defending Mount Lebanon and we’re keener on it more than you,” Wahhab said during meetings with popular and partisan delegations.

Lebanon on Sunday recorded eighteen more COVID-19 cases and another death, the Health Ministry said.

The cases raise the country’s tally to 1,873 and the fatality takes the death toll to 36. The number of recoveries has meanwhile reached 1,311.

Kataeb Party leader MP Sami Gemayel on Sunday noted that improving Lebanon’s strained ties with Arab countries and the West could be an alternative to the floundering negotiations with the International Monetary Fund.

“But is the Lebanese state capable of visiting Washington, Saudi Arabia, the UAE or Europe?” Gemayel lamented in an interview with Radio Orient.

Parties represented in the government have recently talked to ex-PM Saad Hariri about the possibility of forming a “national unity government,” ex-MP Mustafa Alloush confirmed on Sunday.

“We are against the return of Hariri or any figure representing al-Mustaqbal Movement (to the premier post) without securing choices that at least begin with returning to the Baabda Declaration and reforming the electricity sector,” Alloush, who is a member of Mustaqbal’s politburo, said in an interview with al-Jadeed TV.

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday called on President Michel Aoun to break what he called the siege that is imposed on Lebanese “legitimacy” and the country’s “free national decision.”

In his Sunday Mass sermon, al-Rahi also urged friendly nations to “scramble to rescue Lebanon, the same as they used to do whenever it faces a threat.”

Another suicide took place on Saturday in the Metn area of Baabdat when a man plunged to his death from the balcony of his household, the Voice of Lebanon (93.3) radio station reported.