IMF ready to help Lebanon but ‘needs partner in govt’

The International Monetary Fund is willing to work with Lebanon to solve its financial problems and restructure its debt, but needs a partner in the Lebanese government, IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva has said.

Speaking with CNN during the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank, Georgieva said ongoing fragmentation was holding Lebanon back and preventing progress on an economic plan to lift the country out of financial crisis.

“It takes two to tango,” Georgieva said. “We’re ready and very willing to help Lebanon; we need a partner.”

Lebanon’s talks with the IMF stalled this year over a row among Lebanese government officials, bankers and political parties over vast financial losses.

Lebanon urgently needs foreign cash to deal with its first financial crisis since its 1975-1990 civil war.

After a massive explosion at Beirut’s port in August killed nearly 200 people and caused billions of dollars worth of damage, former colonial power France stepped in with a roadmap toward financial aid, but Lebanese leaders have failed to agree on the first step – setting up a new government.

Georgieva said it was sad to see the Lebanese

people in such a dire situation due to the lack of political determination.

“We are ready, day and night, if we get the call that there is a government willing and able to engage with the IMF. We know what needs to be done,” she said.

She said the country needed to get its financial system in shape, audit the books of the financial institutions, and put forward a credible economic plan for investors.

“The country is fragmented, and that fragmentation is holding Lebanon back, it is actually dragging it down,” she said, adding that an exodus of young Lebanese posed additional dangers for the Middle Eastern country.

Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun has postponed by a week consultations aimed at choosing a prime minister to form a new government to tackle the country’s worst economic crisis since its 1975-1990 civil war, the presidency said on Wednesday.

The country has plunged into financial turmoil and seen the value of the Lebanese pound collapse. The Covid-19 pandemic and a huge explosion at Beirut’s port two months ago compounded the crisis and pushed many Lebanese into poverty.

The Lebanese presidency said Aoun was delaying the planned consultations on nominating a new premier until October 22, citing requests “from some parliamentary blocs due to difficulties emerging that need to be solved”.

A man counts Lebanese pounds at a currency exchange shop in Beirut. Lebanon’s talks with the IMF stalled this year over a row among Lebanese government officials, bankers and political parties over vast financial losses.