The Minister of Economy and Trade Amin Salam revealed that “formal negotiations with the International Monetary Fund will start next Monday,” noting that “the negotiations will start after preparatory discussions have been completed on the figures requested by the IMF, regarding the statistics of losses in the financial and banking sectors.”

Regarding losses, he pointed out in an interview that “they are estimated at about 69 billion dollars, according to the Authority’s Chairman, Deputy Prime Minister Shami,” stressing that “the debt program from the IMF in the first phase, if it is completed, will allocate between 3 and 4 Billions of dollars,” declaring that “the IMF delegation was supposed to arrive in Beirut to start negotiations,. However, given the pandemic, the meetings (starting on Monday) will be held virtually via video communication technology.