Lebanon weighs IMF help over $1.2b bond payment

Bloomberg

Lebanon needs the help of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to draft a rescue plan and decide whether to repay its $1.2 billion Eurobond maturing next month, the Annahar newspaper cited one of the country’s longest-serving politicians and a member of the ruling coalition as saying.
With the country facing its worst financial crisis in decades after months of protests, parliament speaker Nabih Berri said Lebanon should form a task force comprising the premier, ministers of economy and finance as well as legal and financial experts, Annahar newspaper reported. The committee would begin work in parallel to making a request to the IMF.
“We need to send a message to the world, perhaps to the Americans in particular stipulating that Lebanon needs the fund’s technical help for a rescue plan,” the newspaper cited Berri as saying.
Politicians have said that a rescue package from the lender would require Lebanon to float its pegged currency and raise taxes.

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