(Bloomberg) --

Lebanese central bank Governor Riad Salameh said the country’s currency peg remains viable as he pushed back against the onslaught of criticism for his handling of the crisis gripping the economy.

“A stable pound is a political decision,” said Salameh, who’s been at the helm of the central bank since 1993. “We at the central bank are convinced of it because we know. And now you see the movement at the exchange bureaus and how it impacts the purchasing power of the Lebanese.”

Addressing Lebanon in a televised speech on Wednesday, Salameh also called on the government not to impose losses on depositors and said Lebanese lenders won’t be allowed to go bankrupt. The central bank had $20 billion in liquidity as of April 24 and has financed $81 billion of budget and trade deficits over five years. It’s owed $16 billion by the Finance Ministry, he said.

A raging currency crisis is bringing Lebanon closer to its day of reckoning after decades of fiscal mismanagement and growing budget deficits in the absence of real reforms. Remittances that the government depended on to finance its needs have dried up, leading to a severe dollar shortage that has wreaked havoc among banks and across the import-dependent economy.

Salameh said he’s a target of a “systematic campaign,” and defended financial engineering policies carried out by the central bank. The operations helped raise enough dollars to support the import of essential goods and bought time for the government at an acceptable cost, he said.

Prime Minister Hassan Diab last week accused the central bank of causing the sharp and quick depreciation of the local currency on the black market, questioning Salameh’s policy and calling on him to be transparent and honest with the Lebanese people.

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