Lebanon's central bank governor at the weekend sought to reassure the country over the stability of the national currency and the liquidity of the country's banks, despite the damage to the economy inflicted by almost two weeks of Israeli bombings.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Riad Salameh insisted that a shortage of dollar bank notes had no underlying monetary causes and would be addressed in the coming days, amid rising concern that banks were not allowing withdrawals ofdollars at branches or cash machines.