BEIRUT — The director general of Lebanon’s Finance Ministry and a member of the country’s team negotiating with the International Monetary Fund has resigned from his post amid a worsening economic and financial crisis, the ministry says.
The one-sentence ministry statement gives no details about Alain Bifani’s resignation other than to say that it was received by Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni. Bifani had held the post for 20 years.
The resignation came two weeks after Henri Chaoul, a financial adviser to the Lebanese government in the talks with the IMF, resigned, saying there is “no real will” for reforms in the country.
Lebanon, one of the most indebted countries in the world, recently defaulted on its debt an has been negotiating with the IMF for weeks with no breakthrough so far.
The small country is going through an unprecedented economic and financial crisis that has seen the local currency lose more than 80% of its value against the US dollar in recent months amid soaring prices an popular unrest.
— AP
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