Outgoing government approves economic recovery plan

Lebanon’s outgoing government has approved a recovery plan for pulling the nation out of its economic meltdown, the country’s information minister says.

The development came during the cabinet’s last official meeting before it becomes a caretaker government following last weekend’s parliamentary elections.

The plan is a first step on a difficult and complicated road, with the ultimate goal of wresting Lebanon out of the worst economic crisis in its modern history. The crisis, which erupted in October 2019, leading to nationwide protests, is rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement.

Parliament still has to approve the plan, which includes restructuring the country’s hard-hit banking sector and amending decades-old banking secrecy laws.

The government last month signed a tentative agreement with the International Monetary Fund for comprehensive economic policies that could eventually pave the way for some relief for the crisis-hit nation. The IMF and the international community have been demanding that Lebanon implement wide-ranging economic and financial reforms in order to release loans and investments worth billions of dollars.

The economic meltdown has plunged into poverty threequarters of Lebanon’s population of 6 million people, including a million Syrian refugees.