Lebanese premier expects draft deal with IMF within weeks

Lebanon’s prime minister says talks with the International Monetary Fund are inching closer to a “final formula” for a draft deal before the end of February

BEIRUT -- Lebanon’s prime minister said Tuesday that his government's talks with the International Monetary Fund are inching closer to a “final formula” for a draft on an agreement before the end of February.

Najib Mikati said the Cabinet was doing “its homework” ahead of talks with the IMF in mid-January. An IMF delegation will visit Lebanon again in late January or early February to lay out “the final formula for the agreement with them and then we will announce to the Lebanese where we stand,” Mikati said.

An agreement with the IMF will have to be approved by the government. Deep disagreements had divided the Lebanese delegation during last year’s negotiations with the IMF, with the government on one side and the central bank and local lenders on the other.

Lebanon is in the throes of an economic crisis described as one of the worst in the world in the last 150 years. International financial institutions call it a deliberate depression, blaming Lebanon's political elite, in power for decades, of mismanaging the country’s resources