Lebanon’s cabinet approved a long-awaited plan for financial recovery in its last session, two ministerial sources told Archyde.com on Friday, three years after the country’s financial crisis.
The reforms contained in Roadmap plans to restructure the banking sector And returning some of the depositors’ savings in hard currency, which is among the basic procedures for the International Monetary Fund to release required financing.
Lebanon is going through a third year of financial collapse caused by decades of corruption and bad policies that have led to the currency losing more than 90% of its value, and banks have prevented most savers from accessing hard currency accounts. A draft government bailout plan earlier this year estimated a gap of about $70 billion in the financial sector.
The government estimates the losses of the financial sector at about 72 billion dollars.
Lebanese banks have been a major lender to the government for decades, helping to finance a profligate and corrupt state that suffered a financial meltdown in 2019.
The collapse prevented depositors from accessing their savings and the local currency lost more than 90% of its value. The Association of Banks in Lebanon rejected an earlier draft of the plan in February, saying it would lead to a loss of confidence in the financial sector.