A Lebanese parliamentary committee approves the World Bank loan to import wheat

July 14 (EUROPA PRESS) –

A committee of the Lebanese Parliament has approved this Thursday the World Bank loan worth about 150 million dollars (about 150 million euros) to import wheat, in the midst of the serious economic and social crisis in the country.

The president of the Finance and Budget Committee of Parliament, Ibrahim Kanaan, has confirmed the decision and has indicated that the committee will ask the Government for a unified exchange rate to approve the Budgets, as reported by the Lebanese news portal Naharnet.

The announcement has come a day after a parliamentary subcommittee reviewed on Wednesday a request from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to amend a law and end banking secrecy to fight corruption, an issue that will be debated next week by this same committee.

The Lebanese Economy Minister, Amin Salam, unveiled the agreement with the World Bank in May and stressed that “Lebanon is the first country to receive a loan of this type.” The Lebanese authorities are also in talks with the IMF for a rescue plan to deal with the serious crisis.

The country has been mired in a crisis for years, a situation deepened by the explosions of August 2020 in the port of the capital, Beirut, the coronavirus pandemic and the situation at the political level, with tensions that have paralyzed the Government for months.

In addition, the Lebanese pound has been collapsing in recent months, in a crisis that led the World Bank to state in June 2021 that the latter is one of the worst recorded globally since the mid-19th century, with a drastic drop in close to 40 percent of GDP per capita since 2018.