In Lebanon, the same salary buys less: Food prices climb as fuel jumps more than 80%

Report by Theresia Rahme, English Adaptation by Karine Keuchkerian

Why is the salary running out so quickly? It’s not because spending suddenly increased. It’s because the same lifestyle has become more expensive.

How? Let’s start with supermarket prices, for example.

Between September 2025 and September 2026, prices changed as follows: Imported beef rose by 41%, potatoes by 34%, lamb by 28%, sardines by 20%, sunflower oil by 19%, and Akkawi cheese by 14%.

These are just a few examples of everyday products that are reasonably likely to be consumed, and that’s before even talking about fuel, which has risen by more than 80% since September last year, while diesel prices have increased by 85%.

To make matters worse, families also have to cover rent, school and university tuition, electricity bills, and other expenses.

So what are the options? Take on a second job, a third or even a fourth just to get by? Cut back on spending? Change the way we live? Look for cheaper alternatives for everything? And when even that is no longer enough, what comes next? Emigration?

A higher-paying job may be available, but rising prices will continue to follow because inflation has become a global problem, not just a local one.

Why?

The reason is one that has become familiar to everyone: the U.S.-Iran war and tensions in the Strait of Hormuz. Any problem there affects oil and shipping.

If oil prices rise, transportation costs increase, driving up production costs and, ultimately, the price of goods. If a war disrupts a shipping route, goods may have to take a longer route, adding to transportation costs and pushing prices even higher.

Even natural factors are making things worse. Take El Niño, for example. A heat wave or drought can hit wheat or vegetable crops, reducing production and driving up prices. The result can be felt clearly at the supermarket checkout.

In other words, before that bottle of oil or kilogram of meat reaches a supermarket shelf, it may have already passed through an energy, shipping, weather, and production crisis.

In the end, who pays the price? The consumer.

And that brings the issue into sharper focus: If prices continue to rise while salaries remain largely unchanged, and neither the government nor the private sector has the capacity to increase wages, what options remain?

Tighter spending, cheaper alternatives, and a further adjustment in consumption patterns may become unavoidable. But as the economic pressure continues to mount, one factor remains beyond consumers’ control: when will the war come to an end?