Lebanon must ration subsidies before reserves run out “” finance minister

Lebanon must ration subsidies before reserves run out “” finance minister

BEIRUT - Lebanon will run out of money to fund basic imports by the end of May and delays in launching a plan to reduce subsidies are costing $500 million a month, the caretaker finance minister, Ghazi Wazni, said. As Lebanon's economy crumbles, the central bank has asked the caretaker cabinet to decide how to gradually lift subsidies to ration remaining foreign currency reserves, Wazni told Reuters on Thursday. "The government must speed this up. The cost of wasting time is very high. With every delay, it becomes higher," he said. Lebanon's financial meltdown is fueling hunger and unrest in the country's gravest crisis since its 1975-1990 civil war. The subsidy plan scales down a list of subsidized foods from 300 to 100 goods, reduces fuel and medicine subsidies and introduces a ration card for 800, 000 poor families, to roughly halve $6 billion in annual spending on subsidies, Wazni said. The overall subsidy plan will have to get the green light from parliament since it must approve funding for the cards, and the caretaker prime minister in turn wants the introduction of the cards tied to subsidy removal, he said, outlining a process that will likely take time. Meanwhile,