BEIRUT: Lebanon's parliament on Wednesday approved cash payments for poor families, to cost $556 million a year, planned as a step that would allow the curbing of a $6 billion subsidy programme for basic goods.
Lebanon is battling a deep financial crisis, dubbed by the World Bank as one of the worst depressions of modern history.
The government introduced a subsidy programme last year to finance the import of basic goods such as wheat, fuel and medicine through drawing down on foreign reserves.
Shortages of essential items such as medicine and fuel have worsened in the past month as the central bank all but ran out of funds to finance the programme.
Some hospitals have been postponing elective surgeries to save on vital medical supplies such as anaesthetics, and fuel shortages have forced motorists to queue for hours to get barely any gasoline.
The government last week effectively cut fuel subsidies by using a weaker exchange rate of the Lebanese pound to the dollar to finance new imports through the central bank's mandatory reserves.
DIPLOMATIC PUSH
Meanwhile, the top diplomats of the United States, France and Saudi Arabia on Tuesday jointly pushed for Lebanon's squabbling leaders to come together to address the country's mounting crises.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held an impromptu three-way meeting on the Lebanon troubles with his Saudi and French counterparts on the sidelines of talks of the Group of 20 major economies in Matera, Italy.
The three discussed "the need for Lebanon's political leaders to show real leadership by implementing overdue reforms to stabilise the economy and provide the Lebanese people with much-needed relief," Blinken wrote on Twitter.
Lebanon has been without a functioning government since a massive blast in Beirut in August 2020 killed more than 200 people and ravaged swathes of the Mediterranean city.
The political indecision comes amid an economic crisis that includes massive waits for fuel and a tumbling value of the Lebanese pound.
The United States, Saudi Arabia and France -- the former colonial power -- are key players in Lebanon, having worked together on the 1989 Taif accord that ended a bloody civil war and established a complicated agreement to split power among the country's communities. - Reuters/AFP
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
