The World Bank Group announced allotting a $246 million aid package to help 786,000 poor Lebanese families who struggle to cope with the pressures of poverty and rocketing prices of food amid the country’s worst economic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war and a global pandemic.
Lebanon will enter total lockdown on Thursday as it struggles to cope with record coronavirus cases, according to the National News.
A sharp increase in coronavirus cases in Lebanon has compounded the crisis, forcing businesses to shut and denying daily wage earners an income in a country where more than half the population lives in poverty.
Lebanon, home to six million people, where the World Bank “project will provide 147,000 extreme poor Lebanese households (approximately 786,000 individuals) with cash assistance for one year,” a statement said.
“Eligible households will receive a monthly transfer of 100,000 Lebanese pounds ($65) per household member, in addition to a flat amount of 200,000 Lebanese pounds per household,” it said.
It will also give 87,000 children between the ages of 13-18 years a top-up cash transfer to cover the direct costs of schooling including fees, textbook and transport, and school uniform expenses.
“Lebanon has been facing compounded and unprecedented crises.
A severe economic and financial crisis led to a projected 19.2 percent decline in GDP in 2020, triple-digit inflation, and a projected increase in poverty to 45 percent and in extreme poverty to 22 percent,” the Bank said.
An explosion at the Port of Beirut in August, which killed more than 200 people and devastated large parts of the capital, has further compounded the country’s economic woes.
Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh sounded the alarm bells last month, warning the nation could only afford to subsidize vital imports at the official rate of 1,500 Lebanese pounds to the dollar for an additional two months, further highlighting Lebanon’s failure in reforming its subsidy program which may exacerbate its deepening financial crisis.
