The Minister of Economy and Trade in the caretaker government, Amin Salam, participated in the Finance and Budget Committee session in Nejmeh Square.
During the session, he noted that he had a review session with the Committee regarding the World Bank’s emergency loan for wheat supplies, which implementation has been delayed.
There were some reviews from the Committee on the related payment mechanism for the implementation of the loan involving the Ministry of Finance, the Banque du Liban, and the Ministry of Economy.
The final framework for implementation was laid down in accordance with the approved bill.
Salam said: “The most important thing is that we have secured Lebanon for nearly nine months of wheat and have preserved the price of a bundle of bread. This is for me the most important thing, and the rest is all details.”
He also stated that they will have a period of three weeks to a month maximum from today to actually start and talk about implementing the entire loan of the World Bank.
“There is a discussion, with the delay in implementing this loan, of new support for the social safety net and food safety so that we do not continue to adopt and implement old support policies that brought us to all the challenges that we faced,” he said.
This means that the Lebanese government will no longer subsidize commodities.
There will be direct support programs for citizens when the World Bank loan is implemented, and, with the drop in the price of wheat, the nine months could extend to more.
Related: World Bank Approved A $150 Million Food-Security Loan For Lebanon.
