BEIRUT (AP) – The World Bank approved a USD300 million additional financing to Lebanon’s poor, providing cash payments to help families struggling through the country’s historic economic meltdown, the institution said in a statement on Friday.
The new financing comes two years after the World Bank approved a USD246 million loan to Lebanon to provide emergency cash assistance to hundreds of thousands in the tiny Mediterranean nation of six million people.
Lebanon is in the throes of the worst economic and financial crisis in its modern history.
The meltdown, rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement by Lebanon’s ruling class, began in October 2019 and has left more than three quarters of Lebanon’s population in poverty.
“The additional financing will enable the government of Lebanon to continue to respond to the growing needs of poor and vulnerable households suffering under the severe economic and financial crisis,” said World Bank’s director for Mideast Jean-Christophe Carret.
The World Bank said the additional financing will provide cash transfers to 160,000 households for 24 months, including current beneficiaries. Eligible households will receive up to USD145 per household, the bank said. The project is jointly handled by Lebanon’s Ministry of Social Affairs and the World Food Programme.
