Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has struck a positive note over the expected announcement by Standard & Poor’s, an international financial institutions, on Lebanon’s sovereign credit rating.
“All expectations regarding the ranking by international financial institutions can carry positive indicators, and this might give Lebanon a chance to fix the course that it is taking,” Berri said Wednesday in his weekly meeting with lawmakers.
Parliamentary sources told Asharq Al-Awsat that S&P would not downgrade Lebanon’s rating to give the government a further chance in working on reforms and implementing projects in electricity and trash management and others.
It was “only natural” for the economic crisis to be the top priority for all Lebanese citizens, Berri said.
During the meeting with MPs, he also weighed in on Lebanon's political atmosphere, saying a reconciliation meeting between rival political parties earlier this month should help “reactivate the government’s work, so that it can work on issues that matter to the Lebanese.”
The speaker was referring to the August 9 meeting that was held between Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Joumblatt and Lebanese Democratic Party chief MP Talal Arslan at the presidential palace in Baabda.
The meeting came after a dispute over the June 30 deadly shooting in Aley that paralyzed the government for weeks.
