Head of the Kataeb’s Economic and Social Council Jean Tawile on Monday deemed the statement of Deputy Prime Minister Saadeh al-Shami in which he declared that “the state and the Banque du Liban are bankrupt" as biggest proof that the authority is living in a state of denial.

 

“The confession of the Deputy Prime Minister will not change anything, as denial still exists. For more than two years, we have been witnessing what is happening concerning banks and depositors, because there was no recognition of the bankruptcy of the Banque du Liban and that it incurred heavy losses as a result of unsustainable policies due to the adoption of monetary policies that do not have results despite all warnings,” Tawile said in an interview with MTV.

 

“In 2015, The Monetary Fund warned the Central Bank against the followed policy that would lead the country towards bankruptcy, but they did not want to recognize this thing and hid it from the Lebanese people and today we are paying the price,” he added.

 

“The banks cannot recover depositor’s money as the banks and the central bank are bankrupt,” he stressed.

 

“Today and for the first time, we are witnessing an official recognition that depositors will not be able to recover their money,” he added.

 

“If there is someone who thinks that he will get all his deposits, then he is mistaken because the losses are huge and the authority is the one behind this situation due to the financial and monetary policies,” he pointed out.

 

“The IMF and the Lebanese government have agreed on an amount of $73 billion of losses, and the GDP is between 15 and 18 billion, meaning that the losses are equal to 5 times of the GDP, so how can deposits be recovered? " He said.

 

"The size of the economy is equivalent to 5 times less from the size of all the losses,” he added.

 

“Whether the depositors will lose about 70% of their money, I consider that the state has assets that are not well managed, and if the state has an integrated plan and will to carry out the required reforms, it is necessary to reconsider the management of state institutions so the losses could be mitigated,” he concluded.