The Lebanese pound has lost more than 90 percent of its purchase power since end-2019, due to its devaluation against the dollar. The exchange-rate problem has led to a fuel shortage in Lebanon, to the extent that the entire country was plunged into darkness earlier this year.

Negotiations with the IMF opened in May 2020, but after two months they stalled amid arguments over the size of financial losses.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini has acknowledged that stagnating donor funding for close to a decade remained below the amount needed to provide quality services. At the same time, as the refugee population continued to grow, poverty and vulnerabilities skyrocketed.

The World Bank on Thursday said it agreed with its partners to repurpose $37 million in funds to help Lebanon's public school teachers survive a crushing economic crisis. The World Bank and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office would divert the money from the Lebanon Syrian Crisis Trust Fund,...

Lebanon needs to receive 12 to 15 billion dollars from its partners to kickstart its economic recovery and shore up fast-diminishing foreign currency reserves, Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh said Tuesday. Lebanon is grappling with an unprecedented economic crisis branded by the World Bank as one of the planet's worst...

Lebanon is in the throes of an economic meltdown that has been called by the World Bank as among the planet's worst since the 1850s. The crisis is widely blamed on nepotism and corruption among the country's ruling class.

Guterres has previously called on Lebanese officials to unite to find solutions to the country's dire economic crisis, dubbed by the World Bank as among the planet's worst since the 1850s. Around 80 percent of Lebanon's population is estimated to be living under the poverty line.

The reports said that he will pay tribute to the victims of the Beirut Port blast, and also undertake field visits to interact with people.

Lebanon's spiraling economic crisis is causing abuse against children to soar and is putting one child out of two at risk of violence, the United Nations said on Friday. "One in two children in Lebanon is at serious risk of physical, emotional, or sexual violence, as families struggle to cope...

Disagreements over the size of the losses between Lebanon's government, central bank, and banking sector contributed to the collapse last year of negotiations with the fund over a new loan program, which is seen as essential to the country's efforts to emerge from a severe economic slump.

An online electronic platform named 'loubany', aimed at promoting Lebanon's economy and industry, will be launched in on 15 January 2022. Local media reports said loubnany will be launched under the patronage of Industry Minister Georges Poushkian, with the participation of the Association of Lebanese Industrialists, the Economic Affairs Directorate...

Even as Lebanon faces one of the worst economic crises, about US$7 billion remains missing from the Lebanese central bank’s 2020 balance sheet, data analysis by TRENDS suggests.

About US$7 billion is missing from Lebanese central bank’s 2020 balance sheet, data analysis by TRENDS suggests while highlighting weak government policies for the economic crisis.

Security forces in Lebanon and Syria said Saturday that they had seized two separate shipments of the banned stimulant captagon, the latest in a string of similar busts.

Egypt has pledged support to Lebanon "at all levels" and stressed that it needs "political accord" to reawaken from the setbacks it has been experiencing and "for it to return to the beacon of the Arabs". Local media reports said that during his meeting with the visiting Lebanese Prime Minister...

Some observers predict the Lebanese pound could drop to a rate of 40,000 against the dollar or worse in the coming weeks. The financial crisis that started in 2019 is the worst in the country's history and has left four in five Lebanese living under the poverty line.

France and Saudi Arabia have committed to "fully engage" to resolve a diplomatic row between the Gulf kingdom and Lebanon, visiting French President Emmanuel Macron said Saturday. 

French President Emmanuel Macron met Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler in Jeddah Saturday to discuss regional stability, in particular crisis-hit Lebanon.

Kordahi had been in the eye of the storm for criticizing the Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen during an interview that was recorded before he became minister in September. The interview was aired on Lebanese TV after he joined the cabinet, and his comments angered Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and...

Lebanon's Education Ministry should extend the December 4, 2021, school registration deadline for Syrian children and end policies that are blocking Syrian refugee children’s access to education, Human Rights Watch said on Friday. Thousands of Syrian refugee children have been out of school, blocked by policies that require certified educational...

The expected breakthrough coincided with a visit to the Gulf by French President Emmanuel Macron, who has spearheaded international efforts to help Lebanon out of its worst ever economic crisis. Macron started his two-day tour in Abu Dhabi but was also due to visit Qatar, which Michel Aoun also visited...

The Netherlands will provide support to the Lebanese media to ensure access to and delivery of reliable information for voters.

The new record, topping a previous low of more than 24,000 earlier this week, adds to the troubles of the newly-formed Lebanese government.

A probe into the Beirut port explosion has exposed the extent of such interference, with top officials mounting court challenges to obstruct the work of lead investigator Tarek Bitar.

Tourism Minister Walid Nassar said the move was aimed at preventing Beirut from being used as a departure point.

Syria is an important destination for Shiite pilgrims, and has continued to welcome visitors from Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon during the conflict. However, European tourists —a constant before fighting started in 2011 — have not been visiting for a decade.

The Lebanese pound sank to a new low on the black market Wednesday, with no end in sight to the economic and political crisis plunging ever-growing numbers into poverty. According to websites monitoring the black market rate, the pound was trading at 24,000 to the dollar or 16 times less...

Israeli strikes targeting a part of Syria where fighters loyal to Lebanon's Hezbollah are based killed five people Wednesday, a war monitor said. The official Syrian news agency SANA, citing a military official, had reported earlier that two civilians had been killed.

Lebanon's economic meltdown presents an opportunity to improve the country's environmental policies and tackle its festering waste management crisis, says its Environment Minister.

Lebanon's diaspora -- estimated to number at least three times the country's 6-million population -- will take part in the vote for the 128-seat parliament, making them a powerful electoral force. In some parts of Europe, volunteers set up registration centers to help compatriots sign up.

Women and children were among the group intercepted Friday by a navy patrol off the coast of Qalamoun in northern Lebanon, the army says

Lebanese security forces on Friday said they thwarted an attempt by more than 80 people to illegally cross by sea into Europe from Lebanon. In a statement, the Internal Security Forces said they raided a "tourist resort" in the Qalamoun area of north Lebanon on Thursday after being tipped off....

Iraq has summoned its cultural attache in Beirut for an investigation into the alleged sale of fake Lebanese university degrees to Iraqis, including MPs.

All airlines operating from Beirut must limit passengers departing on direct or indirect flights to Belarus to Belarusian citizens, Lebanese citizens holding visas or residency permits for Belarus, and "Arabs and foreigners having residency permits in Belarus". Lebanon said the measures were effective immediately until further notice.

Lebanon has said only foreigners with Belarusian residency permits would be allowed to fly from Beirut to the ex-Soviet country. This comes after several Middle-Eastern countries have already stopped their residents from traveling to Belarus to cross the border into the EU.

An unemployment rate of more than 11 percent and the crisis impact on entrepreneurs and startups major concerns in the region, says IMF chief.

In oil exporting countries, the fiscal deficits in 2020 will be replaced by large surpluses in 2021 and 2022, mainly in GCC. If oil prices average US$ 81/b in 2022, fiscal balances in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Qatar, Iraq, and Oman are projected to be higher than 3% of GDP.

Dr Abdullah Asiri, Saudi Arabia's Deputy Minister for Preventive Health, has been chosen as one of the members of the World Health Organization's Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO). The SAGO includes 28 members of the world's leading scientists, representing a wide range of disciplines including...

Lebanon's government, formed in September, has yet to take serious action to stop its downward spiral.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun has said that his country is keen to establish good relations with the Arab countries, especially Saudi Arabia and Gulf States.

The Arab League on Monday pressed for an easing of tensions between Lebanon and Gulf Arab states over a Lebanese minister's comments on the Yemen war. The diplomatic rift prompted Saudi Arabia and some of its allies to recall ambassadors and block imports from Lebanon.

The economy of Lebanon is in crisis. Here’s a look at which countries it depends on for trade and aid, and how much.

Merely producing great quantities of oil or having a shortage does not dictate whether a country will have the cheapest or costliest gasoline.

The government is breaking at the seams over a series of disputes involving a probe into last year's monster port blast, and remarks by Information Minister George Kordahi over the Yemen war that sparked reprisals from Saudi Arabia and its allies.

The oil prices would average US$70 per barrel in 2021, Garbis Iradian, chief economist for MENA at IIF, tells TRENDS in an exclusive interview.

Lebanon's oldest English-language daily newspaper laid off its entire staff and became the latest casualty in the collapse of the country's once-flourishing press, employees said Tuesday.

Lebanon on Monday called for talks with Saudi Arabia to ease a spiraling diplomatic row sparked by remarks made by a Lebanese minister on the Yemen war. 

The developments, sparked by Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi's remarks on the Yemen war, have dealt a fresh blow to crisis-hit Lebanon, where a fragile government is struggling to secure international aid, including from wealthy Arab countries.

The move came a day after recalling its diplomats from Beirut over a Lebanese minister George Kordahi's remarks that Iran-backed Huthi rebels in Yemen were "defending themselves... against an external aggression", sparking a diplomatic row.

This is bad news for Lebanon, which had been counting on financial assistance from the Gulf to rescue its economy. Now, its ties have soured with four countries in the neighborhood because of comments made by its Information Minister George Kordahi.