World Bank says ready to offer $300-500m to cash-strapped Lebanon

The World Bank said, Tuesday, it is ready to provide Lebanon with a finance package valued between $300 and $500 million to cover social and sustainability needs, Anadolu News Agency reports.

“This is very important in light of the increasing poverty rates. The funds also cover other sustainability-related projects,” Ferid Belhaj, the World Bank’s Vice-President for the Middle East and North Africa, said following his meeting with caretaker Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, in the capital, Beirut.

On Lebanon’s electricity crisis, Belhaj said, “there are important reforms that the Lebanese State must implement.”

“We are walking the Lebanese government through these essential reforms,” he added.

The World Bank has repeatedly asked for reforms and for allowing auditing of the bank accounts of Electricite du Liban, the official body that regulates electricity prices in Lebanon.

Since late 2019, Lebanon has been grappling with a severe economic crisis that saw the value of its currency plummet, along with fuel and medicine shortages.

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