The International Monetary Fund is ready to continue working with Lebanon on helping it overcome its worst financial crisis in three decades, but urged authorities to unite around the government’s rescue plan and engage in a "productive discussion".
"From our side, we are ready to work together with the authorities to improve the [government] plan where this is necessary," Athanasios Arvanitis, deputy director of the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia Department, said at a press conference on Monday. "We believe that the government's original plan went into the right direction … it provided an assessment of challenges and an estimate of financial losses."
After defaulting on $31 billion (Dh114bn) of eurbonds in March, and its currency losing more than two thirds of its value against the US dollar, Lebanon asked the IMF in May for a $10bn of emergency funding to pull its economy out of a downward spiral.
The Lebanese government’s rescue plan has served as a blue print for talks between Beirut and the IMF. It gives an overview of the magnitude of the country's economic troubles and massive losses it is facing in the financial system.
However, IMF's talks with the government, the central bank, different political factions and commercial banks have made little progress so far. The scale of financial losses has so far proven to be the sticking point for different stakeholders.
Leaks to the Lebanese media point to diverging views on the size of the losses. Reports say the IMF estimates the size of the losses far greater than the central bank's projections, which explains the difference as a matter of accounting.
Mr Arvanitis warned that attempts to misrepresent the magnitude of losses or delaying the reform process would add to the economic woes of the country.
“We are worried that attempts to present lower losses and postpone difficult measures into the future would only [add to the] cost of the crisis [and] delaying recovery,” he said.
Last month, Alain Bifani, who served for 20 years as the director-general of the Lebanese ministry of finance resigned as a result of the stalled IMF-government talks. Mr Bifani, a former Arthur Andersen executive and banker with ABN Amro, who was also a consultant to the United Nations Development Programme, is a respected figure and considered impartial.
Lebanon’s public debt is projected to climb to 161.8 per cent of gross domestic product in 2020 from an estimated 155 per cent last year, according to the IMF. That ranks it as the third-highest debt-to-GDP ratio in the world after Japan and Greece.
The IMF expects the country’s economy to contract 12 per cent this year. Inflation soared to 56 per cent in May and the country faces a liquidity crunch with the Lebanese pound losing more than 80 per cent of its value against the greenback in the black market.
“We believe that an economic reform programme needs to stop the immediate deterioration of economic conditions, support the most vulnerable from the impact of the crisis and lay the conditions for sustainable growth,” Mr Arvanitis said.
The programme in our view needs to offer a comprehensive strategy to restructure public debt, strengthen the fiscal framework, recapitalise banks, reform key parts of the economy, particularly the state owned enterprises, and improve … transparency.”
Rajasthan Royals 153-5 (17.5 ov)
Delhi Daredevils 60-4 (6 ov)
Rajasthan won by 10 runs (D/L method)
Countdown to Zero exhibition will show how disease can be beaten
Countdown to Zero: Defeating Disease, an international multimedia exhibition created by the American Museum of National History in collaboration with The Carter Center, will open in Abu Dhabi a month before Reaching the Last Mile.
Opening on October 15 and running until November 15, the free exhibition opens at The Galleria mall on Al Maryah Island, and has already been seen at the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Atlanta, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Company Profile
Name: JustClean
Based: Kuwait with offices in other GCC countries
Launch year: 2016
Number of employees: 130
Sector: online laundry service
Funding: $12.9m from Kuwait-based Faith Capital Holding
Abu Dhabi World Pro 2019 remaining schedule:
Wednesday April 24: Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship, 11am-6pm
Thursday April 25: Abu Dhabi World Professional Jiu-Jitsu Championship, 11am-5pm
Friday April 26: Finals, 3-6pm
Saturday April 27: Awards ceremony, 4pm and 8pm
Tips to stay safe during hot weather
- Stay hydrated: Drink plenty of fluids, especially water. Avoid alcohol and caffeine, which can increase dehydration.
- Seek cool environments: Use air conditioning, fans, or visit community spaces with climate control.
- Limit outdoor activities: Avoid strenuous activity during peak heat. If outside, seek shade and wear a wide-brimmed hat.
- Dress appropriately: Wear lightweight, loose and light-coloured clothing to facilitate heat loss.
- Check on vulnerable people: Regularly check in on elderly neighbours, young children and those with health conditions.
- Home adaptations: Use blinds or curtains to block sunlight, avoid using ovens or stoves, and ventilate living spaces during cooler hours.
- Recognise heat illness: Learn the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke (dizziness, confusion, rapid pulse, nausea), and seek medical attention if symptoms occur.
Russia's Muslim Heartlands
Dominic Rubin, Oxford
