"Lebanon’s plan to bring its budget deficit back into single digits is a step in the right direction, but the government needs to regain access to borrowing markets to keep the fears of default under control," said Toby Iles, the Sovereign team director at Fitch.
Iles considered that "implementing the budget is a critical factor, as There may be some positive sentiment effect." He added: "given the track record (of not implementing spending cuts), people will look forward to seeing some results so that this has a continuing impact on confidence."
Fitch forecasts that Lebanon's budget deficit for 2019 will reach about 9 percent, a figure higher than the government's forecast.
Iles stressed that giving Fitch a B-rating to Lebanon is already a very low rating, which means there is no need to accelerate any other change, but the broader concerns are mainly about the fragile confidence.
Source: (Al-Arabiya.net, Edited)
