BEIRUT: The Lebanese pound dropped for a fourth day in a row Friday, trading at LL13,450 against the dollar on the black market, with no end in sight for a political crisis that has left the country without a fully functioning government for 10 months.

Exchange dealers said they were buying the dollar for LL13,400 and selling it for LL13,500, compared to an average LL13,150 Thursday.

The pound has lost nearly 90 percent of its value over the past 20 months, with the crisis pushing half of the population under the poverty line.

Political paralysis is complicating the economic meltdown with fractious political leaders unable to agree a new Cabinet capable of implementing reforms required to unlock foreign aid.

Lebanon has lacked a government - the current one is acting in a caretaker capacity - since just after a massive blast in Beirut's port last August that wrecked swaths of the capital.

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