Lebanon Economy Minister Confident of International Bailout: Sky

(Bloomberg) -- Lebanon’s economy minister said the country’s economic crisis has turned it into a “failed state” but is confident an international bailout would be agreed upon soon, Sky News reported.

The government is doing “everything that is needed to get out of this crisis,” Raoul Nehme was cited as saying in an interview with Sky News. The country is a failed state in the context that “everything has collapsed basically,” he said.

Lebanon’s economic unraveling is beginning to slip out of control as its currency declined, threatening to drag the nation into a hyperinflation spiral. Food prices are rising so fast the army recently took meat off its menu, and blackouts are spreading as fuel runs out.

Nehme said the chances of an International Monetary Fund bailout were certain, and that no one would invest in the country without a framework in place through the IMF. Lebanon has been in talks with the IMF for months without an agreement, and there is a lack of consensus within the government on the bailout mechanism or size of the deficit, according to Sky.

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.