UPDATE - Lebanese Parliament Adopts Budget For Current Year 3 Months Before Its End

CAIRO (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th September, 2022) The Lebanese parliament at a meeting on Monday adopted the budget for 2022 three months before the end of the year, the draft includes an exchange rate that is twice lower than the actual one in the country.

A total of 63 lawmakers out of 128 voted for the budget, and 37 voted against. The adoption of the budget even at such a late date was required to avoid a new wave of criticism from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which criticized the Lebanese authorities for slow implementation of reforms.

The budget envisions an increase in the salaries of civil servants in the amount of 5 million to 12 million liras ($135-325 at the black market rate).

Budget expenditures are set at 41 trillion liras, and revenues are about 29.9 trillion.

The parliament's session was accompanied by an attempt by hundreds of protesters to storm the parliament building, but they were stopped by the army and police. The protesters sent delegates to negotiate with parliamentarians and the Lebanese interim government's Defense Minister Maurice Salim, who eventually pledged to triple the salaries of military personnel and retired military pensions.

The IMF and Lebanon reached an agreement in April under which the country could receive about $3 billion over four years.

Lebanon has for more than two years been in a deep financial and economic crisis, accompanied by political and social tensions. Amid the crisis, the banking system was almost completely paralyzed, the national Currency depreciated more than 20 times against the Dollar. As a result, more than 70 percent of the population found themselves below the poverty line.