Lebanon Prime Minister said government apply International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme to help the economy through an acute crisis

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The Lebanese government on Thursday approved a long-awaited decide to rescue the economy from its worst crisis in decades following a fresh wave of angry street protests in the week . Nationwide protests broke call at October accusing the country's political class of corruption and mismanagement.

The plan involved by Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab's government comes as mounting hardship fuels a replacement wave of deadly unrest.





Diab's cabinet unanimously adopted the plan at a gathering at Baabda Palace and he was expected to get out its details during a televised address to the state later within the day.

Announcing the plan on Thursday, Diab said his government would use it to use for a world fund (IMF) programme to assist the economy through an acute crisis that would last up to 5 years.

"If we get (IMF support), and God willing we'll , it'll help us to undergo this difficult economic phase which might be three, four or five years," Diab said.

The plan was finalised following several days of violent confrontations between protesters and Lebanese security forces that saw dozens of angry youth vandalising local banks within the northern city of Tripoli and therefore the southern port city of Sidon. The violence left one protester dead and a number of other injured on each side in a number of the foremost serious anti-government rioting triggered by the depression amid a weeks-long coronavirus lockdown.

Panic and anger has gripped the general public as they watched the national currency – the Lebanese pound , which has been pegged to the dollar for nearly three decades – plummet, losing quite 60 percent of its value in recent weeks. debt has soared while the economy contracted and foreign inflows dried up within the already heavily indebted country that relies on imports for many of its basic goods. the small Mediterranean country of about five million people is one the foremost indebted within the world, with the debt forming nearly 170 percent of GDP.

Nationwide protests broke call at October against the country's political class amid accusations of widespread corruption and mismanagement of resources.

The World Bank warned in November that the poverty rate could rise to 50 percent if the economic situation worsened.

International donors have long demanded that Lebanon institute major economic changes and anti-corruption measures to unlock $11 billion in pledges made in 2018. But the country's depression deepened and therefore the cash-strapped government announced in March it had been defaulting on its sovereign debt for the primary time.

Lebanese politicians have traded blame over who is liable for the crisis, the worst since Lebanon's 15-year war led to 1990.

A lockdown to fight the coronavirus pandemic has added to the economic woes besetting the country, which include soaring inflation, a liquidity crunch and a plummeting currency.

Demonstrators in northern Lebanon have attacked banks and clashed with security forces for 3 consecutive nights, re-energising a protest movement launched in October against a political class the activists deem inept and corrupt.

The government unanimously approved the economic plan after minor amendments, the presidency said on Twitter following a cupboard meeting within the presidential palace in Baabda.

Lebanon's depression is rooted in decades of state waste, corruption and bad governance that landed the country with one among the world's biggest debt burdens. Lebanon defaulted on its sovereign debt last month for the primary time.

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