Tag Archives: subsidies

Taxi and public transportation drivers on Thursday blocked several vital roads across Lebanon to press authorities to fulfill promises made to support them economically in the face of a crunching economic and financial crisis that has affected all sectors. In the capital, the drivers blocked the intersection at the Mohammed …

Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said on Friday the group had spent more than $10 million on free and subsidized fuel sourced from Iran for the Lebanese people since September. In a televised address, Nasrallah said $2.6 million worth of fuel had been provided for free to Lebanese NGOs, …

 Lebanon’s parliament voted on Tuesday to hold legislative elections on March 27, giving Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s government only a few months to try to secure an IMF recovery plan amid a deepening economic meltdown. Lebanon’s financial crisis, which the World Bank labelled one of the deepest depressions of modern …

 Lebanon’s state electricity company said on Thursday it risked a total blackout across the country by end-September as its fuel oil reserves dwindle. Lebanon, in the throes of one of the worst economic meltdowns of modern history, has been plagued by worsening fuel shortages for the past few months with …

Lebanese pro-Iranian TV channel Al Mayadeen said on Tuesday that a convoy of diesel tankers brought by Hezbollah from Iran crossed the Syrian border towards Lebanon. The Iran-aligned group says the shipments should ease a crippling energy crisis in Lebanon, while Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Iranian fuel shipments …

Lebanese President Michel Aoun announced the formation of a government on Friday afternoon, ending 13 months of caretaker governance. The agreement over a Cabinet line-up headed by telecoms billionaire Najib Mikati as prime minister, came after weeks of wrangling over the distribution of government ministries between Lebanon’s various political parties. …

Lebanese fuel prices are expected to double after the state on Saturday decided to change the course used to price oil products in an attempt to alleviate the devastating shortage that has brought Lebanon to a standstill. As a partial reduction in fuel subsidies, the increase will mean more hardship …

The United Nations warned on Friday that more than four million people in Lebanon, including one million refugees risked losing access to safe water as shortages of funding, fuel and supplies affect water pumping. “UNICEF estimates that most water pumping will gradually cease across the country in the next four …

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen encouraged Jordan’s King Abdullah on Tuesday to continue to implement economic reforms to boost sustainable growth and job creation, the Treasury said in a statement. During a meeting with King Abdullah in Washington, Yellen noted the challenges that Jordan faces, complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic and …

 Riots left more than two dozen people injured in Tripoli on Friday, including 10 soldiers, as tensions continued to rise in Lebanon. “The situation seems to be getting worse, and things are about to escalate because we are facing a difficult political and social fate,” said Lebanese Armed Forces Commander …

The price of bread in Syria doubled on Sunday and the cost of diesel fuel nearly tripled as the Assad regime confronted a cash crisis caused by 10 years of civil war and Western sanctions. Damascus has repeatedly raised fuel prices in recent years to tackle the financial crunch, and …

Turkey’s Karpowership will resume electricity supply to Lebanon from its two power ships from Tuesday in a decision it said was a goodwill gesture against a backdrop of talks over payment arrears and a legal threat to its vessels. The company told the government in May that it would have …

Taha Riz has worked just three days in more than a month at his Tripoli bakery, in Lebanon’s neglected north where economic meltdown has hit hardest and plunged thousands like him into precarious poverty. The bakery, like Tripoli itself, survived earlier hardship when sectarian tensions fuelled by the war in …

Calm prevailed in Lebanon after a night of violence that left scores injured as hundreds of protestors took to the streets across the small Mediterranean country to decry deteriorating living conditions.  Over the weekend, Lebanon’s currency hit record lows, with market dealers saying that the pound was trading at just …

Violence has seeped into daily Lebanese life due to the country’s severe economic crisis and a breakdown in official security, with fights and even shootings at gas stations. Lebanon is experiencing an economic crisis that is likely to rank as one of the world’s three worst in more than 150 …

Lebanon’s energy minister said on Thursday the country’s gasoline subsidy was unsustainable and would eventually come to an end. “We have to get used to and be convinced that this subsidy that we benefited from for a year or a year and a half …. will end,” Raymond Ghajar said …

Public prosecutors in Lebanon have been instructed to crack down on the monopoly on foodstuffs and oil derivatives as political, security and diplomatic concerns grow over explosive daily protests. The spontaneous protests are also demanding access to medicine, fuel, hospitalization and electricity. The Crisis Observatory at the American University of …

Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun approved an exceptional loan of up to 300 billion Lebanese pounds ($200 million) on Monday for the state electricity company to import fuel for generation before supplies run out, an official statement said. Lebanon is mired in a financial crisis, caused by a mountain of debt built …

Jordan must address high unemployment to deliver durable, jobs-rich and inclusive growth, said IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva. The country also needs to advance electricity sector reforms, boost business competitiveness, and strengthen governance and transparency, she added. Georgieva said that timely and targeted fiscal measures have helped protect jobs, while …

Indian farmers protesting against new laws brought in by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government have started running their own media to counter the ruling party’s narrative, which they say is discrediting their struggle. Farmers from agriculture-dependent states have been protesting for months to demand that the government repeal three farm …

Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, Chinese authorities have introduced policies and measures to respond to the epidemic and help people get through difficult times. Here we list some of the policies and measures that have been rolled out. 1. Treatment bills of infected patients subsidized Apart from confirmed …

Following the Akkivot Institute’s demand to disclose confidential documents from the Israeli archives on the territories occupied in 1967, a policy was recently revealed by the government of the occupation on granting a economic safety nets for investments for Israelis in the occupied territories in order to expand and promote …

Egypt plans to launch its first sovereign fund by the end of the year and will begin a roadshow in the first half of 2019 to drum up private investment, the country’s planning minister said. Modelled after sovereign funds in India and Malaysia, Egypt’s new investment arm will seek to …

Sri Lanka hiked fuel prices Thursday by up to 130 per cent following pressure from the International Monetary Fund and its central bank to reduce the burden of heavy subsidies on its struggling economy. The price of kerosene oil, widely used in rural Sri Lanka for cooking and in lamps, …

Saudi Arabia has reported a sharp rise in inflation on value-added tax (VAT) and subsidy reforms with inflation accelerating to 3 per cent in January. Consumer price inflation in Saudi Arabia strengthened to 3 per cent year on year in January, after seeing deflation of -1.1 per cent in December …

Nahed Taher, the first female Saudi senior economist at National Commercial Bank and the founder of Gulf One Investment Bank, has set up a joint investment vehicle with the investment arm of one the largest pension funds in the United States that will deploy as much as US$100 billion in …