• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

No ‘magic wand’ to fix Lebanon crisis, new prime minister says

September 13, 2021 by David Barret Leave a Comment

September 13, 2021

By Maha El Dahan

BEIRUT (Reuters) -Lebanon’s new Prime Minister Najib Mikati, who took office last week promising to revive IMF talks to unlock aid, said on Monday there was no time to lose and no easy path to tackle one of history’s worst economic meltdowns.

The new government, formed after more than a year of political stalemate, met for the first time on Monday, replacing a caretaker administration that had quit in the aftermath of last year’s Beirut port explosion that killed hundreds, injured thousands and left large swathes of the capital destroyed.

“It is true that we don’t have a magic wand. The situation is very difficult,” Mikati, a billionaire-turned-politician told the cabinet, according to a statement published after the government’s first meeting.

Lebanese hope the new administration will plot a path out of a crisis that has sunk the currency by some 90% since late 2019 and forced three quarters of the population into poverty.

Mikati pledged to help resolve shortages of fuel and medicine, supplies of which have dried up as the import-dependent nation’s hard currency reserves have run out.

State electricity is available for a few hours a day, if at all, and most Lebanese homes and establishments increasingly rely on private generators.

A generator at a dentist’s clinic in Tyre exploded on Monday leaving seven people injured, a reflection of the safety hazards of relying heavily on the alternative source of power.

Western governments, including the United States and France, have welcomed the cabinet formation, while urging it to quickly implement reforms that international lenders have demanded before loans can flow.

“We need the help of the IMF, the World Bank, regional and international funds,” President Michel Aoun, who approved the new government after months of bargaining, told the cabinet. “What is required are urgent, decisive steps to start reforms.”

Mikati has previously said resuming IMF talks would be a priority. On Friday, he said divisive politics must be put to one side and that he could not go to IMF talks if he faces opposition at home.

In a boost to the government, the finance ministry said Lebanon would receive a total of $1.135 billion in IMF Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), more than the $860 million’s worth that had been expected as part an IMF general allocation.

In addition to the $860 million from 2021, the sum includes$275 million dating from 2009, the ministry said, adding the sum would be deposited with the central bank on Sept. 16.

IMF talks broke down last summer, with politicians and banks disputing the scale of vast losses mapped out by a government financial recovery plan which the Fund endorsed. Aoun urged the government to include that financial recovery plan in its policy programme, as well as reforms set out by a French roadmap last year.

The previous government failed to implement structural reforms which donors have been urging for years, including measures to address state corruption and waste at the root of the crisis.

(Writing by Tom PerryEditing by Peter Graff and Bernadette Baum)

Source Link No ‘magic wand’ to fix Lebanon crisis, new prime minister says

David Barret
David Barret

Related posts:

  1. Here they go again – ABBA reunite for first new album in 40 years
  2. Top U.S. diplomat slams ‘shameful sentencing’ of Belarus opposition figures
  3. El Salvador buys its first 200 bitcoins, president says
  4. New Zealand cenbank Deputy Governor Bascand to leave bank in January

Filed Under: News

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

  • Did You Know The World’s Largest Waterfall Is Underwater?
  • Video Game Study Found Out What People Do When The World Ends, And It’s Exactly What You’d Expect
  • How Do We Predict The Weather? Find Out More In Issue 40 Of CURIOUS – Out Now
  • You Should Never Leave These Foods In Your Fridge Door (But We Bet You Do)
  • These Gullies On Mars Look Carved – We Might Finally Know What Created Them
  • Potential Environmental Trigger For Autism Identified, 3I/ATLAS’s Tail Appears To Have Changed Direction, And Much More This Week
  • Spaghetti Has Inner Secrets We’re Only Just Learning About
  • How Far Back In Time Could You Go And Still Understand English?
  • We Now Know How The First People Reached America – And It Wasn’t On Foot
  • Two Major Coral Species Now Functionally Extinct In Florida Keys, After Record-Breaking Marine Heatwave
  • A “Super-Earth” In The Habitable Zone Is Half The Distance To Comparable Worlds
  • Adorable But Critically Endangered Bornean Orangutan Born In Conservation Success
  • How Did The FDA Settle On The “2,000 Calories Per Day” Guideline?
  • Comet 3I/ATLAS Losing At Least Two Kangaroos’ Worth Of Dust Every Second
  • Mummified Dinosaur Duo Prove They Had Hooves, Marking “The First Confirmed Hooved Reptile”
  • What Do The Numbers On Your Toaster Really Mean?
  • NASA Vs. Elon Musk: Is A Moon Landing This Decade Off The Cards?
  • Scientists Explored Some Of The Deepest Parts Of The Ocean And Spotted Some Seriously Weird Deep-Sea Creatures
  • 500-Meter-Tall Megatsunami Struck Remote Alaskan Fjord After Massive Landslide
  • 3I/ATLAS, CKM Syndrome, And Mosquitoes’ Final Frontier
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version