Dubai Telegraph - IMF, Lebanon strike conditional deal on $3 bn aid

EUR -
AED 3.815793
AFN 76.358734
ALL 99.523854
AMD 411.973954
ANG 1.872666
AOA 947.449075
ARS 1097.446155
AUD 1.653711
AWG 1.869965
AZN 1.764672
BAM 1.958664
BBD 2.097968
BDT 126.244626
BGN 1.954846
BHD 0.391523
BIF 3039.731556
BMD 1.038869
BND 1.406156
BOB 7.179603
BRL 5.987725
BSD 1.03902
BTN 90.239405
BWP 14.382241
BYN 3.400373
BYR 20361.838175
BZD 2.087183
CAD 1.483999
CDF 2981.554782
CHF 0.948981
CLF 0.025894
CLP 993.677075
CNY 7.593147
CNH 7.595843
COP 4330.00722
CRC 525.869057
CUC 1.038869
CUP 27.530036
CVE 110.899449
CZK 25.054449
DJF 184.627565
DKK 7.458998
DOP 64.722143
DZD 140.57042
EGP 52.589852
ERN 15.583039
ETB 131.15764
FJD 2.403737
FKP 0.855599
GBP 0.834861
GEL 2.929556
GGP 0.855599
GHS 16.05055
GIP 0.855599
GMD 74.280784
GNF 8992.45274
GTQ 8.021731
GYD 217.60929
HKD 8.09234
HNL 26.677969
HRK 7.666386
HTG 136.089023
HUF 402.165519
IDR 17016.679047
ILS 3.720352
IMP 0.855599
INR 90.381528
IQD 1360.918776
IRR 43723.411626
ISK 146.604917
JEP 0.855599
JMD 163.60927
JOD 0.737077
JPY 160.414894
KES 134.014368
KGS 90.849132
KHR 4165.865689
KMF 492.995616
KPW 934.982481
KRW 1509.066698
KWD 0.320948
KYD 0.865879
KZT 524.05397
LAK 22569.435631
LBP 93082.688783
LKR 308.711475
LRD 205.124338
LSL 19.250189
LTL 3.067511
LVL 0.628402
LYD 5.100913
MAD 10.370515
MDL 19.570904
MGA 4893.074438
MKD 61.451314
MMK 3374.206945
MNT 3530.077975
MOP 8.33571
MRU 41.720589
MUR 48.616106
MVR 16.000344
MWK 1804.51634
MXN 21.333051
MYR 4.645813
MZN 66.385957
NAD 19.249942
NGN 1564.68277
NIO 38.178607
NOK 11.701424
NPR 144.384239
NZD 1.840384
OMR 0.399983
PAB 1.039035
PEN 3.857838
PGK 4.164836
PHP 60.515698
PKR 289.844407
PLN 4.163948
PYG 8175.95693
QAR 3.782005
RON 4.977738
RSD 117.099265
RUB 97.653405
RWF 1455.455882
SAR 3.896328
SBD 8.775292
SCR 14.928996
SDG 624.360443
SEK 11.301469
SGD 1.405662
SHP 0.855599
SLE 23.687412
SLL 21784.569592
SOS 593.725927
SRD 36.573366
STD 21502.496931
SVC 9.091296
SYP 13507.378554
SZL 19.25005
THB 35.354282
TJS 11.351756
TMT 3.636043
TND 3.309316
TOP 2.433135
TRY 37.504638
TTD 7.049411
TWD 34.112292
TZS 2690.671414
UAH 43.466968
UGX 3822.590348
USD 1.038869
UYU 45.025848
UZS 13505.300538
VES 63.650812
VND 26558.693518
VUV 123.336649
WST 2.909693
XAF 656.917709
XAG 0.032253
XAU 0.000358
XCD 2.807596
XDR 0.795563
XOF 660.203985
XPF 119.331742
YER 257.639653
ZAR 19.246763
ZMK 9351.063501
ZMW 29.06793
ZWL 334.515489
  • RBGPF

    1.8700

    66.72

    +2.8%

  • NGG

    -0.9000

    60.58

    -1.49%

  • CMSD

    -0.1800

    23.71

    -0.76%

  • BCE

    0.3800

    23.26

    +1.63%

  • SCS

    -0.0500

    11.93

    -0.42%

  • CMSC

    -0.1800

    23.28

    -0.77%

  • JRI

    -0.0200

    12.85

    -0.16%

  • BCC

    -4.6000

    118.72

    -3.87%

  • RELX

    0.1100

    51.44

    +0.21%

  • RIO

    0.3900

    62.04

    +0.63%

  • RYCEF

    0.0600

    7.67

    +0.78%

  • BTI

    0.2200

    42.74

    +0.51%

  • BP

    0.1300

    34.68

    +0.37%

  • VOD

    0.0900

    8.59

    +1.05%

  • GSK

    0.0600

    36.13

    +0.17%

  • AZN

    1.7000

    74.43

    +2.28%

IMF, Lebanon strike conditional deal on $3 bn aid
IMF, Lebanon strike conditional deal on $3 bn aid

IMF, Lebanon strike conditional deal on $3 bn aid

The IMF announced Thursday a conditional agreement to provide Lebanon with $3 billion in aid to help it emerge from a severe economic crisis, following months of negotiations.

Text size:

The country has been battered by triple-digit inflation, soaring poverty rates and the collapse of its currency since a 2020 debt default.

Officials in Beirut applauded the announcement as it will open the door to additional financial support from foreign donors.

But experts reiterated doubts over the willingness of Lebanon's political elite, widely blamed for endemic corruption, to implement the reforms needed to resuscitate the economy.

The deal is "a visa stamp for donor countries to begin co-operating with Lebanon and to put Lebanon back on the global finance map", Prime Minister Najib Mikati told reporters on an upbeat note after the International Monetary Fund announcement of the "staff-level agreement".

Saudi Arabia, a key financial backer, announced Thursday it was sending an ambassador to Lebanon for the first time since a row broke out five months ago over the Riyadh-led military intervention in Yemen.

Fellow oil-rich Gulf state Kuwait, which sided with Riyadh in the row, also announced that its ambassador would return "in response to appeals of moderate national forces" in Lebanon.

Ernesto Ramirez Rigo, who led the IMF mission to Lebanon, said that once approved by the global crisis lender's board, the 46-month financing programme will "support the authorities' reform strategy to restore growth and financial sustainability".

However, approval is contingent on "timely implementation of all prior actions and confirmation of international partners' financial support", he said in a statement.

Rigo blamed "many years of unsustainable macroeconomic policies" for the crisis in Lebanon that came to a head in 2020 when it defaulted on its sovereign debt for the first time in its history.

The Lebanese pound has lost about 90 percent of its value on the black market and four out of five Lebanese now live below the poverty line, according to the United Nations.

The situation has been exacerbated by soaring inflation, the Covid-19 pandemic and the devastating August 2020 explosion at Beirut port.

"Lebanon is facing an unprecedented crisis, which has led to a dramatic economic contraction and a large increase in poverty, unemployment, and emigration," Rigo said, adding that the programme will support increased social spending.

- 'Highly unlikely' -

The aid would be released under the global lender's "Extended Fund Facility" but only after parliament in Beirut approves a 2022 budget and a new bank secrecy law to fight corruption.

It also will require cabinet approval of a debt restructuring plan, Rigo said.

The cabinet must likewise approve a bank restructuring strategy.

A former vice governor of Lebanon's central bank, Nasser Saidi, said he had doubts that such reforms would ever materialise.

"This is good news if the set of Monetary-Fiscal-Governance-Structural reforms including banking sector restructuring are implemented. Highly unlikely!" he wrote on Twitter.

In a joint statement with President Michel Aoun, Mikati said the IMF deal would help "to revive Lebanon and put it on the path of recovery and solutions".

Cabinet and parliament must approve the agreement and the reforms demanded by the IMF before the deal goes through.

For more than two years, the ruling elite has been unable to lift the country out of crisis, as it is beset by political horsetrading between rival factions that have repeatedly left Lebanon without a government.

Financial analyst Henri Chaoul dismissed the IMF agreement as a "non-event".

"The prior actions will never be done. We are light years away," he told AFP.

"We have 30 years of track record with a perfect-fit regression line."

S.Mohideen--DT