The “gray classification” haunts the Lebanese economy

Ahmed Atef (Cairo)

Experts, analysts, and parliamentarians warned that “Lebanon will not escape from the gray classification by the Bank and the International Monetary Fund, if the government and the banks do not rush to implement the required reforms.” They said that skipping the classification “may be a new grace period for the banks more than it is for the government.” Stressing the need to carry out the internationally required financial, monetary and political reforms to avoid falling in classification, next fall, to the “gray” list of countries that suffer from gaps in the effectiveness of combating money laundering and terrorist financing.
Lebanese academic and political analyst Bashir Esmat revealed that the government and banks are using various pretexts related to taking care of the stolen deposits “to avoid undertaking the necessary reforms,” and that “the required reform affects heads of authority and banks, some of which may be forced to declare bankruptcy.” In statements to Al-Ittihad, Ismat pointed to rumors circulating in Beirut that some influential people who smuggled their money abroad are working to return it to its bases, to avoid possible international judicial sanctions that might affect them, explaining that whatever the internal situation, regional developments remain the decisive factor. In Lebanese self-determination, it does not seem that there is a possible change on the horizon before the decisive fall meeting of the Board of Governors of the Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
For his part, Lebanese political researcher Hikmat Shahrour considered that moving the sovereign rating to gray represents an economic catastrophe and a dull future full of pitfalls and difficulties, in a country where governance mechanisms are not organized to an acceptable extent. He warned in a statement to Al-Ittihad that “the decline in the rating will increase… Bankruptcy and hardships,” and described the Lebanese state and the banks that extort the Lebanese people’s money as “all sinners.”
Former Lebanese MP Paula Yacoubian explained that there are suspicions surrounding some of those who rule Lebanon, and that “any bad international classification for the country is expected,” as it comes years after the financial crisis and false promises, as not a single reform law has yet been completed or approved. She explained to Al-Ittihad that none of the reforms that were required by the International Monetary Fund, and which Lebanon pledged to approve, were completed, and that Lebanon “is not only in a gray area, but in a black area.”