Lebanon's Central Bank Governor Riad Salame said he hoped the new government would be formed soon to carry out necessary reforms in the public sector and reduce the deficit.
He explained that interests in Lebanon have risen, in view of the risks that the country is witnessing and the political crises it is going through. He noted that those risks were linked to the situation in the region, while political crises were translated into delays in the formation of the government.
“Our economy is able to grow more if there is political stability,” Salame said during the second and final day of the Bkerki Socio-Economic Forum, in the presence of Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai and a number of prominent socio-economic figures.
The governor expressed his concern over the high budget deficit in Lebanon, pointing out that the cumulative deficit of the country has reached in the past four years around $20 billion, while the GDP has only increased by $4 billion.
He noted that the central bank “has made clear decisions to maintain monetary stability so that we have a stock of money to move freely by respecting international laws and until we reach the possibility to launch investments.”
“Since 2015, we face campaigns mostly based on the political and economic reality of Lebanon. These campaigns are also linked, in one way or another, to the decision to vote on a law in the United States to combat Hezbollah’s funding globally. And I think that based on this law, there has been a change in dealing with Lebanon, whether at the financial or monetary levels,” Salame said.
However, he reassured that Lebanon’s “banking sector was strong, thanks to the implementation of financial regulations and international standards and the development of a compliance system that will help us implement the sanctions we are committed to applying.”
