The Lebanese President Michel Aoun called on the international community to support Lebanon financially to help it overcome the severe economic collapse that has been witnessing for months, and exacerbated by the spread of the new Coronavirus epidemic.
Lebanon has been witnessing for months an accelerating economic deterioration with a severe shortage in liquidity, and a significant decline in foreign reserves with the deterioration of the value of the lira against the dollar in the parallel market. While the government that was formed at the beginning of the year was bent on developing an economic plan that it described as "salvaged", the COVID-19 epidemic arrived in Lebanon, which has so far officially recorded 527 cases, including 18 deaths.
Aoun pointed out, during a meeting held with the ambassadors of the international community to support Lebanon, which includes European and Arab countries, that "given the seriousness of the current financial situation, and the significant economic effects on the Lebanese, residents, and expatriate people, our reform program will need external financial support to support the balance of payments and to develop our vital sectors».
The International Support Group, during its last meeting in Paris at the end of last year, stipulated the formation of an "effective and credible" government that would undertake "urgent" reforms to provide any financial assistance to Lebanon.
Aoun clarified that Lebanon was preparing to launch a workshop to address its economic, financial and social crises when COVID-19 pandemic struck the world, forcing it to declare a state of health emergency, which somewhat brake its start, exacerbated its crises, and added to it a health crisis.
Today, Lebanon is afflicted by debts amounting to $92 billion, which constitutes about 170 percent of gross domestic product, according to the Standard and Poor's credit rating agency, which is the highest in the world.
Source (Al-Khaleej newspaper-UAE, Edited)
