The International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission through its cheif Chris Jarvis, hoped that Lebanon's parliament would approve the 2019 budget as soon as possible and work to reduce the deficit to 7.6 percent. This would help free the funds that Lebanon needs from the Cedar conference, where donors pledged from countries and institutions to finance Lebanon with about $11 billion, provided that the country embarks on the implementation of the postponed reforms.
Riad Salamé, Lebanon’s Central Bank Lebanon Governor revealed that the growth rate has been zero since the beginning of 2019, pointed out that the economic outlook is improving.
"The central bank assumes that the Lebanese economy will not grow or will contract in 2019, although this could be improved thanks to tourism," he said.
He also mentioned that "the bank supports government efforts to reduce the cost of debt service in this year's budget, but the agreement on measures has not yet been finalized".
The draft government budget approved by the Council of Ministers in May and currently under discussion in the parliament, is considering reducing the cost of Lebanon's huge public debt service and aims to reduce the budget deficit to 7.6 percent of GDP, compared to 11.5 percent in 2018.
Source: (Anadolu Agency, Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed Newspaper, Edited)
