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Should You Keep Your Savings in Gold or Lebanese Pounds?
If you held your savings in Lebanese pounds through 2019, you already know the answer in your gut. You watched
the same salary buy less bread each month. Many people also had dollars sitting in a bank account they could no
longer take out in full. That mix, a falling currency and cash you cannot reach, is what pushed thousands of families
in Beirut back to something older and simpler. Gold.
This is not about getting rich. It is about protecting what you have. Below we lay out how gold and the lira have
actually behaved since the crisis, and the honest trade-offs of each, so you can decide what fits your own situation.
What the crisis did to lira savings
Before 2019 the lira was pegged at about 1,507 to the US dollar. Then the economic crisis hit. By early 2023 the
market exchange rate had passed 89,000, and the official rate was later moved to 89,500. High inflation made it
worse. Annual inflation climbed into the hundreds of percent, so consumer prices in the shops rose almost by the
week. Anyone holding the local currency lost more than 90 percent of their buying power in a few years. That kind
of currency depreciation turns a lifetime of lira savings into a small fraction of what it once was.
Bank dollars were not safe either. The country ran short of foreign exchange, so informal limits meant most
depositors could only withdraw a little at a time, often converted to pounds at a poor rate. People began calling
these trapped dollars "lollars", because they were worth far less than real cash in hand. The lesson many families
drew was a hard one. Money you cannot freely access is not the same as money you can hold.
Why gold held its ground
Gold is priced on world markets in US dollars, not in Lebanese pounds. So when the lira fell, the price of gold
measured in pounds rose to match. A gram of gold a family bought years ago is still worth its full weight today, and
in 2025 and 2026 gold reached fresh all-time highs above 4,000 dollars an ounce.
Physical gold has one more quality that mattered here. It is not locked inside a bank. Unlike foreign exchange
trapped in the banking system, a coin or small bar kept at home is yours to sell the day you need it, not the day a
bank allows it. You can buy or sell gold at our counter in Bourj Hammoud on any working day, and the price we
quote follows the same London benchmark the rest of the world uses.
Even the central bank keeps its wealth in gold
Here is a fact that surprises many people. Lebanon's own central bank, Banque du Liban, holds around 286.8
tonnes of gold. That bullion is worth roughly 45 billion dollars at today's prices, which makes Lebanon the second-
largest gold holder in the region after Saudi Arabia. The stock has barely changed since the 1970s, and a one-line
law from 1986 blocks any sale without a vote in parliament.
Central banks around the world hold their reserves in a mix of gold, dollars and euros. Gold is the part that no other
country can freeze or print away. During the crisis there has been a public debate about whether Lebanon should
sell some of these gold reserves to help the recovery, and by law that decision is not a simple one. We take no side
in that argument. We only point out the obvious. When a country wants a store of value that can survive a currency
collapse, it holds foreign exchange reserves and it holds gold. Families reach for the same tool, for the same
reason.
The honest trade-offs of holding gold
Gold is not perfect, and we would rather you knew the downsides before you buy.
It pays no interest. A gram of gold in a drawer earns nothing on its own. A sound deposit account, in a currency you
trust, pays you an interest rate to hold it, and when interest rates are higher that gap matters more. Gold protects
value in real terms, it does not grow by itself.
The price can be volatile. Gold can fall as well as rise, and that volatility is real. It dropped sharply in 2013 and has
had dips since. Over long stretches it has held up well, but you should be ready to sit through the quiet years.
There is a gap between buying and selling. When you sell, a dealer pays a little under the live market price, and
jewellery carries a making charge you do not recover. We explain this openly before you commit either way.
You have to store it. Gold at home needs to be kept safe and private. We wrote a separate guide on storing gold
safely at home in Lebanon that covers the practical side, from where to keep it to what to avoid.
How families here actually save in gold
Most people do not buy a large bar in one go. They build up slowly, a little at a time.
The classic unit is the gold lira, the sovereign coin your grandparents likely kept in the house. It is simple to buy,
simple to sell, and recognised everywhere in Lebanon. Small bars are another easy entry point. If you are just
starting, one-gram bars let you set money aside gradually without a large outlay. Jewellery counts too, although the
making charge means it is better worn than bought purely as savings.
The point is that gold saving scales to your budget. You are not tied to a minimum, and you are not signing a
contract.
Gold or a bank deposit, side by side
A simple way to think about it. A deposit suits you if you want interest, you trust the currency and the bank, and you
might need that exact amount at short notice. Gold suits you if your first goal is to protect value against a weak or
falling currency, and you can leave it untouched for a few years.
Plenty of families in Lebanon now do both. They keep a small amount of usable cash for the month, and hold their
longer-term savings in gold they can sell whenever they choose.
Common questions
Is gold a safe investment?
Gold is better seen as a store of value than a quick investment. It has held its worth through wars, inflation and currency collapses, including our own. It can still fall in the short term, so it suits money you are able to leave alone for a while.
Can the price of gold go down?
Yes. Gold rises over the long run but has real dips along the way. If you might need the money next month, gold is not the right home for it.
Is it better to keep dollars or gold in Lebanon?
Physical dollars in hand are useful for daily spending. Gold tends to hold value better over many years and cannot be frozen inside an account. This is why a mix of the two is so common here.
There is no single right answer for everyone. What we can say, after decades on the same street in Bourj Hammoud, is that gold gave many Lebanese families a way to hold on to their savings when little else did. If you want to understand today's rate before you decide, come in or check the daily price first, and buy only what suits your budget.
This article is general information, not financial advice. For a decision about your own savings, please speak with a licensed financial adviser.