Sat 02 May 2020:
Lebanon is set to request a $10 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to stem the country’s economic crisis, as part of the country’s financial rescue plan, Prime Minister Hassan Diab said yesterday.
The roadmap includes a reform package and plans to unlock $11 billion in conditional aid donations promised by the international community in 2018, but never unlocked, because successive Lebanese governments failed to implement the necessary reforms.
In a televised address after the meeting, Diab said: “For the first time in history [the government has] a complete and integrated financial plan, which puts an end to floundering financial policies that brought the country to the current state of collapse.”
Adding, “we will ask for a loan program from the International Monetary Fund… and move forward with that.”
The move to seek an aid package from the IMF, however, has come as a surprise for many, after powerful Hezbollah officials strongly warned against the step in February.
Hezbollah opposition to IMF involvement has softened in recent months, after Iran, the militia group’s main backers, requested emergency funding from the organisation.
Secretary-General of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah, however, has maintained that conditions – a normal feature of IMF bailout packages – must “not breach Lebanese sovereignty”.
Since, however, Lebanon has defaulted on its $1.2 billion Eurobond, and is seeking to restructure more than $90 billion of public debt.
Meanwhile the country’s currency, the lira, has lost more than 50 per cent of its value on the parallel market in recent months, reigniting anti-government protests which started in October.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
