World Bank Approves $300mn Financing to Help Lebanon

Date: 26 May 2023 - 23:11

News ID: ۱۱۵۴۳۹

BEIRUT (AP) – The World Bank approved a $300 million additional financing to Lebanon, providing cash payments to help families struggling through the country’s historic economic meltdown, institution said in a statement Friday.
The new financing comes two years after the World Bank approved a $246 million loan to Lebanon to provide emergency cash assistance to hundreds of thousands in the tiny Mediterranean nation of 6 million people.
Lebanon is in the throes of the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history.
“The additional financing will enable the Government of Lebanon to continue to respond to the growing needs of poor and vulnerable households suffering under the severe economic and financial crisis,” said Jean-Christophe Carret, World Bank Middle East Country Director.
The World Bank said the additional financing will provide cash transfers to 160,000 households for 24 months, including current beneficiaries. Eligible households will receive up to $145 per household, the bank said. The project is jointly handled by Lebanon’s Ministry of Social Affairs and the World Food Program.
The Lebanese pound has lost more than 95% of its value at the start of the economic crisis, leaving many of the country’s residents, including 1 million Syrian refugees, in need for help.
The World Bank announcement came after a separate announcement by the UN refugee agency and the WFP that they will start making aid payments to refugees in Lebanon in dollars, rather than in Lebanese pounds, with a maximum of $125 per family per month.
Since the collapse of Lebanon’s currency, the UN agencies had been paying assistance to refugees in Lebanese pounds. Before the change announced this week, refugee households received a maximum of 8 million pounds per month, worth about $80 at the current exchange rate.