The Lebanese Minister of Economy and Trade, Amin Salam, said that the International Monetary Fund is keen to protect depositors, especially the small ones, after realizing that there is a danger to their deposits.
Salam said in a radio interview that the IMF delegation that held the last meeting with Lebanon the day before yesterday “was clear with us in terms of that we have a not easy work path ahead,” noting that the Lebanese side is required “to clarify more the issue of reforms and the framework of the recovery plan.”
Salam pointed out that «the IMF is keen to be strict in protecting depositors, especially the young ones, because it felt through the foregoing that there is a risk of harming this particular category … It asked us to put more than one option that secures protection and gives them greater reassurance, because the recovery plan will not It is at the expense of the depositors.
Regarding the price chaos in the Lebanese markets as a result of the high exchange rate of the dollar in the absence of any oversight, Salam said, “One of the main departments in the Ministry of Economy, which is the Consumer Protection Directorate, has great importance today in light of the stressful and exploitative conditions in some places for the citizen. We started the campaign from the first day that the ministry took over, and worked on developing the directorate’s work mechanism, and within a few months we expanded the scope of sharing protection through the security and judicial agencies, and this was translated into clear results last month.” He noted that the security forces, including public security and state security, kept pace with the ministry’s campaigns, which led to covering the largest number of areas in terms of oversight.
Regarding the competition law, Salam said, “On the 21st of this month, a plenary session of the House of Representatives will begin on ending the competition law, which I was personally keen to re-review, specifically the issue of exclusive agencies, because the competition law will really be the backbone of economic reform in terms of monopoly and prices.”