The International Monetary Fund visits Lebanon this month to push negotiations on a comprehensive reform program

The Director of the Communications Department at the International Monetary Fund, Julie Kozak, announced today, Thursday, that a team of fund experts will visit Lebanon during this September, aiming to give a new boost to discussions about an economic program supported by the fund, amid the ongoing financial crisis that has been affecting the country for years.

In a press briefing, Kozak emphasized that Lebanon needs significant support from international partners to succeed in its reform efforts, noting that this support should come with very lenient conditions, given the scale of the economic and social challenges facing the country.

She confirmed that solving banking issues is a key element of the reform program, referring to the crisis in the Lebanese banking sector, which faces huge claims from local banks following the collapse of the financial engineering initiated by the Central Bank of Lebanon in 2016.

This visit comes at a time when Lebanese banks are preparing to appoint consulting firms to negotiate financial claims estimated at around $80 billion, amid ongoing difficulties in reaching a final agreement with the financial authorities.