Some785 restaurants and cafes have been closed in the country since last September, reports MTV TV on Tuesday quoting Tony Ramy, head of Lebanon's syndicate of restaurants owners.
The number of employees laid off at these restaurants reached 25,000 while the rest of the employees are working on a part-time basis because of the drop in business by 75 per cent.
Lebanon has been witnessing a financial crisis because of a shortage in the US dollar currency caused by economic slowdown, the drop in cash injections from Lebanese abroad and transfers of huge amounts of dollars by big depositors to foreign countries.
This has prompted businesses to buy US currency from money exchange companies, which led to the increase of the price of dollar against the Lebanese pound.
As a result, a lot of businesses had to shut down after incurring heavy losses by buying foreign currency at a high price.
