The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has begun assessing the emergency reform package announced by the Lebanese government last week over the ongoing protests in the country for nearly two weeks. It called for urgent reforms to be implemented in light of the country's high levels of debt and fiscal deficits.
In this regard, Jihad Azour, the Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the IMF said: "We are studying the package of reforms announced by the Lebanese government, but we need to see not only what it contains, but the timetable of the package in a country like Lebanon that suffers from such high levels of debt relative to GDP and high levels of double deficits."
Azour stressed that "there is an urgent need for fundamental reforms in Lebanon in order to restore macroeconomic stability and confidence and stimulate growth and provide some solutions to the issues raised by the street," saying that "in order to restore confidence in the economy. They must implement some long-awaited reforms in the energy and communications sectors based on a very detailed timetable, pointing that "the Fund is in regular discussions with the Lebanese authorities which did not yet request the Fund to provide a funding program," he said.
Source (Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed Newspaper, Edited)
