A meeting of the cabinet will take place next Thursday at the Baabda Presidential Palace, Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced on Friday following a meeting with President Michel Aoun.

Here’s what we know:

    • The Council of Ministers has been meeting since Jan. 24 to examine the proposed draft budget law for 2022, prepared by Finance Minister Youssef Khalil. Approval of a budget is crucial to negotiations between Lebanon and the International Monetary Fund.

    • “The Treasury advance for electricity will be outside the budget plan, in principle,” Mikati said on Friday. “We want a unified and comprehensive plan for electricity,” he added.

    • The government should also devote meetings to adjust telecommunications rates to reflect the depreciation of the Lebanese lira against the dollar, he said.

    • Another meeting is scheduled today between the finance, industry and agriculture ministers to define the list of imported products that will be exempt from customs fees.