2024-01-13 05:16:27
“Lebanon Debate”
Lebanon is still stuck in the banking crisis and financial collapse, amid the absence of solutions, plans and treatments, while the head of the Lebanese Institute for Market Studies, Dr. Patrick Mardini, considers that the financial situation is “abandoned”, and the crisis has been as it has been for four years and will continue until the year 2024, indicating that the fate of deposits The amount of 93 billion dollars in Lebanese banks is still murky, compared to 7 billion dollars in the Bank of Lebanon as a mandatory reserve, and is likely to decline, which means that the disbursement of depositors’ funds is continuing, in light of the absence of treatment for certain interests.
In an interview with Lebanon Debate, Dr. Mardini believes that unifying exchange rates is a positive step. He reveals that the issue of deposits is postponed until the financial balance is restored and the banking sector is restructured, despite the fact that several ideas are currently being put forward, and they are all ideas from “ Out of the box”.
However, the focus of these ideas, Mardini says, is one idea, explaining, “They revolve around a single scenario related to the fate of deposits. All those concerned, including officials, are waiting and circling around the idea of haircuts for depositors, and they want to deduct deposits without blackening their face with depositors, and this is the reason.” “The crisis has not been resolved for 4 years.”
Regarding the proposed scenario for implementing this deduction, Dr. Mardini confirms that “everything or every deposit exceeding $100,000 will be cut or will be subject to deduction and subject to hair cutting, and they are putting forward ideas to obscure the truth, which is that the money has disappeared, and therefore, this is The only current proposal on the table, but they are looking for a way to market it in the government and in the parliament, and in short, they want to pass this scenario without a headache.”
As for the solutions proposed at the economic level, Mardini explains that “all solutions are postponed even though the crisis began 4 years ago,” stressing the existence of many problems, the most prominent of which are:
The first problem is that the International Monetary Fund wants “haircuts” on deposits, and the government wants “haircuts” on deposits, but the House of Representatives is confusing and embarrassing because the representatives are afraid that the street will revolt against them. Therefore, the solution has been pending for 4 years and there is no way to reach it.
The second problem is related to the fate of the banking sector, because the International Monetary Fund wants to bankrupt the banks, knowing that if the banking sector goes bankrupt, the depositors will lose their money, as the depositor and the bank are in the same boat, which puts the government in front of two options: attacks on the depositors and leaving the banks, or sacrificing both parties. But if you decide to sacrifice the banks, there will be no growth in the country because it will not be possible to obtain loans to carry out projects and investments.
Mardini continues that the third problem is government performance, as the government must reduce its expenditures and stop giving any increases, streamline the public administration, reduce the number of its employees and implement reforms in the administration, but it has not taken any action in this context.
Regarding the fourth problem, according to Mardini, it is the electricity sector in terms of the necessity of opening this sector to competition through the formation of a regulatory body that can attract serious companies to enter the sector and compete with the EDL, which has not yet been achieved despite all the steps taken by the government and the institution.
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