Lebanon approves $556M in cash payments for struggling families

The subsidy would give eligible families much-needed relief in the Middle East nation in throes of an economic meltdown.

Lebanon’s parliament on Wednesday approved cash payments for families struggling financially, a move that will cost $556m a year and could allow the lifting of a $6bn subsidy programme for basic goods. Every family eligible for the programme would receive around $93 a month, a source close to the government told Reuters news agency. The Middle Eastern nation is in the throes of a burgeoning financial crisis, which has plunged more than half of its people into poverty and which leaves households struggling to afford basic goods.