Wazni: Economic Plan Sets Ground for Negotiations with IMF
Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni described the government’s economic rescue plan approved on Thursday as “historic,” saying it paves the way for negotiations with the IMF and support from donor countries to help Lebanon’s ailing economy, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Friday
“The plan has credibility and opens the door to negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, as well as opens an opportunity to activate the results (loans and grants) of the CEDRE Conference and collect support from donor countries,” said Wazni in remarks to the daily.
The Minister added that the plan “includes for the first time, real and transparent figures on the financial and banking reality in Lebanon.”
The Lebanese government on Thursday approved a long-awaited plan to rescue the debt-saddled economy from its worst crisis in decades, following a fresh wave of angry streets protests.
The "main purpose of the plan is to start negotiations with creditors abroad," Information Minister Manal Abdel Samad announced after the meeting.
“The plan will set solid ground for negotiations with the IMF,” said Wazni. “It bears a positive message to the international community because it includes clear and practical steps to achieve the reforms that the French Finance Minister focused on during my phone call with him. We expect positive echoes abroad,” added the Minister.
However he noted that the “government was also keen on gaining confidence from inside, that's why it consulted and discussed the plan with economic bodies, labor unions, experts and presidents of universities in order to secure the widest possible national embrace of it," he said.
Source: Naharnet
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