Lebanon Needs New Government, Radical Change of Direction, IMF Says

DUBIA, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - Lebanon cannot pull itself out of its economic crisis without a new government to transform the country and launch long-stalled reforms, a senior official at the International Monetary Fund said.

The country defaulted on its debt last year, sending its currency crashing. Its economy shrank by 25% in 2020, the IMF said in a report last week. A standoff over the make-up of a new government has intensified in recent months, delaying a revival of funding talks with the Washington-based crisis lender. "The change of direction cannot be done on a piecemeal basis. It requires a comprehensive approach," the director of the IMF's Middle East and Central Asia Department, Jihad Azour, told Reuters.