IMF examines extent of Lebanon’s financial sector losses

By AFP 16 December 2021, 9:04 pm

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Lebanese army blocks a road by barbed wire that leads to the Ain el-Rumaneh neighborhood after the deadly clashes that erupted a week earlier along a former 1975-90 civil war front-line between Muslim Shiite and Christian areas, in Beirut, Lebanon, on October 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Amid ongoing talks on a new aid program, the IMF is examining data from Lebanon’s government on the scope of financial sector losses, estimated at about $69 billion, a fund spokesman says.

“I’d say there’s been considerable progress in identifying financial sector losses,” IMF spokesman Gerry Rice tells reporters in reference to the information submitted this week by Beirut.

Disagreements over the size of the losses between Lebanon’s government, central bank and banking sector contributed to the collapse last year of negotiations with the fund over a new loan program, which is seen as essential to the country’s efforts to emerge from a severe economic slump.

Deputy Prime Minister Saade Chami tells AFP that officials have agreed that financial sector losses amount to “around $69 billion,” though he described that as an estimate that could change.

Rice says the Washington-based crisis lender is “now assessing the government’s announced figures, and we’ll continue our discussions with the authorities in the context of the engagement.”

An IMF team will travel to Beirut early next year to continue the discussions, he says.