Lebanon's parliament backs $556M cash subsidy
As Lebanon grapples with an economic crisis, qualifying families would receive up to $137 per month to help cover basic goods.
Lebanon’s parliament on Wednesday approved the distribution of $556 million on prepaid cash cards to half a million struggling families in the cash-strapped country.
Under the new law, households that qualify will receive up to $137 a month to help purchase necessities over the next year. A government official told Agence France-Presse that Beirut hopes to use World Bank loans to cover $300 million of the $556 million program.
The small Mediterranean country is in the midst of its worst economic and financial crisis in decades since its 1975-1990 civil war. Unemployment rates have surged, and the Lebanese currency has lost more than 90% of its value since October 2019. Around half of the population lives below the poverty line.
“Lebanese have become refugees in their own country,” lawmaker Hadi Aboul Hosn of the Progressive Socialist Party told Reuters.
