Tag: subsidies

Lebanon to receive $150 million loan for food from World Bank

Lebanon has received a final approval from the World Bank over an emergency $150 million loan for importing wheat, Economy Minister Amin Salam announced Monday. "Lebanon is the first country to receive such a loan," Salam said, adding that the agreement will be sent to Cabinet for approval. Salam said he hopes the agreement will […]

Lebanon finalizing deal to borrow electricity from Jordan

Crisis-hit Lebanon will sign a deal with Jordan next week to bring in electricity via Syria to help ease grueling power cuts, Energy Minister Walid Fayyad has told AFP. The agreement, which comes as the country grapples with round-the-clock power cuts, is part of a wider government effort to eventually provide state power for eight […]

Public transport workers on national strike across Lebanon

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 al-Amin Mosque in downtown Beirut […]

Nasrallah brags about spending $10 million on Iran fuel imports

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, municipalities, government hospitals and other […]

Uneasy Lebanon readies itself for March polls

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 history, had been compounded by […]

Lebanon faces total blackout as fuel oil reserves dwindle

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 most Lebanese relying on private […]

Diesel tankers headed to Lebanon from Iran, via Hezbollah

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 constitute a breach of Lebanon's […]

Economic emergency government agreed to in Lebanon

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. Mr Mikati cut an emotional […]

Lebanon to rise fuel prices as subsidies crunch pinches

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 in a country where poverty […]

Vast majority of Lebanese losing access to water, UNICEF warns

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 to six weeks," a statement […]

US tells Jordan to maintain momentum for financial reforms

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 "underscored the broad partnership between […]

BREAKING NEWS - Riots break out in Tripoli, Lebanon

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 Gen. Joseph Aoun as he […]

Syrians fearful Assad cannot meet salary pledges

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 the latest increases follow a […]

Turkish company to resume electricity sales to Lebanon

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 to shut down unless there were moves […]

Lebanon's north hit hard by downturn, neglected by state

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 neighbouring Syria exploded into clashes […]

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