Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced that he has a scheduled meeting with the advisory firm Lazard, to see how a financial recovery plan it recruited for Lebanon could be developed into a “more realistic” vision for getting the country out of its calamity.
“Lebanon would be very auspicious if it was able to reach a framework for a contract with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) by the end of the year,” Mikati said in an interview. The Lebanese Prime Minister took office earlier this month and is resolute in reviving IMF talks.
In the most comprehensive comments yet on his method for trying to reverse Lebanon’s devastating financial collapse, Mikati also promised a fair distribution of the losses in the financial system and to protect the rights of small depositors.
Lazard assisted the previous Lebanese government to draw up a financial rescue plan that recognized losses of $90 billion.
But the plan was shot down by objections from the banks, which said it made them foot too much of the bill for the collapse, in addition to opposition from the central bank and the ruling political elite that got Lebanon into its crisis.
“I will not announce anything except if the whole financial recovery plan is complete,” Mikati expressed.
“We have a financial recovery plan, I have asked the company that set it up to come to Lebanon, and they will come, and I will have a meeting with them in the coming days… to see how we can update this plan,” he further stated.
“I want to ask for a more realistic plan to get out of this crisis we are in,” he added.
