Naharnet

Report: Lebanon Awaits IMF Response over Assistance

After requesting financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund, Lebanon’s government expects a reply from the multilateral lender in a maximum of “two weeks” to kick start negotiations, al-Joumhouria daily reported on Monday.

A “prominent” source told the daily that the government received “positive” feedback after it announced its economic rescue plan, noting that cooperation with the IMF “would open many prospects for Lebanon, beginning with restoring Arab and international confidence, and obtaining aid and loans.”

Lebanon will receive around “9 billion dollars from the IMF over a period of few years, let alone an assistance from donor countries, the World Bank and Arab and foreign funds,” said the source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, other media reports said the IMF's reply won't be anytime sooner that mid June.

On Friday, Lebanon signed a request for financial help from the International Monetary Fund, initiating a long process the government hopes will ease the country’s worst post-war economic crisis.

An economic reform plan, unanimously approved on Thursday in a cabinet meeting, is expected to reduce Lebanon's enormous public debt burden from 170 percent of GDP to less than 100 percent.

In tandem, the government will seek more than $10 billion dollars in financial support on top of $11 billion in grants and loans already pledged by international donors in 2018.

It is unclear how much would come from the IMF.

Experts had lobbied for an IMF rescue as the only exit from Lebanon's financial slump, but some officials have said they are wary of recommendations the world body may impose.

Lebanon is in the thick of its worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.

Forty-five percent of Lebanon's population now lives below the poverty line, according to official estimates, and tens of thousands have lost their jobs or seen their salaries slashed.

The Lebanese pound, pegged to the dollar at 1,500 since 1997, reached record lows on the black market last week, selling for more than 4,000 to the greenback.

The official rate of 1,500 pounds to the dollar remains unchanged, but the reform plan adopted by the government is "based on an estimation of a rate of 3,500".

Source: Naharnet, Agence France Presse


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