Lebanon's plan to tackle a financial and economic crisis will meet IMF recommendations and will be ready in weeks, the finance minister said on Thursday, adding that any recourse to an IMF program must be politically agreed and its terms should not cause suffering.
Speaking days after the heavily indebted state declared it could not meet coming debt payments, Finance Minister Ghazi Wazni also told Reuters the official exchange rate of the Lebanese pound would be maintained for the "foreseeable future", saying this helped control inflation among other factors.
The plan being drawn up by Prime Minister Hassan Diab's government will form the cornerstone of efforts to pull Lebanon out of the worst financial crisis since independence in 1943. It will cover banking, financial and other economic reforms.