Lebanese officials fail to deliver on IMF preliminary deal

It has been a year since Lebanon signed a preliminary agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but officials have implemented none of the promised conditions. Instead of being on the road to recovery, the country's situation continues to deteriorate.

In just one year, the dollar-to-Lebanese pound exchange rate has dropped from 24,000 Lebanese pounds to 100,000 Lebanese pounds.

Moreover, the cost of living and inflation registered record levels exceeding 190% annually.

Depositors are seeing the value of their money 'evaporate,' and even the promise made by the government last year to return up to $100,000 to depositors is now in doubt. However, officials could have returned up to $500,000 per depositor at the beginning of the crisis.

The losses in the financial sector have now exceeded $70 billion, up from around $30 billion at the start of the crisis. If Lebanon had implemented the IMF agreement, we would have seen investment projects and an influx of dollars into the country as confidence returned. This would have included around $3 billion from the IMF and approximately $10 billion from donor countries.

By following the IMF's proposed reforms in the public sector, citizens were beginning to see improvements in government services, such as electricity, telecommunications, and transportation, with money being directed toward the treasury instead of bankruptcy.

All of this could have happened, but as usual, officials chose to continue spending the remaining funds of depositors. In the end, they will have to return to the IMF and accept its conditions, but they will be much harsher because the situation has become much more difficult.