IMF hopes Lebanon parliament will approve budget ASAP-finance ministry

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission to Lebanon said it hoped its parliament would approve the draft 2019 state budget as soon as possible, the Lebanese finance ministry said in a statement.

The head of the IMF mission, Chris Jarvis, hoped "parliament would as soon as possible approve the budget in which work happened to reduce the deficit to 7.6% (of GDP), which will help release funds that Lebanon needs from the Cedre conference", said the finance ministry statement, which was issued in Arabic.

Donor states and institutions pledged some $11 billion in financing to Lebanon at the Cedre conference in Paris last year, conditional on the country undertaking long-delayed reforms.