The Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva kicking off the IMF meetings in Washington, a few days before the spring meetings with the World Bank, scheduled for April 17, 2025. (Photo taken from the IMF's Facebook page)
BEIRUT — Finance Minister Yassine Jaber and Parliamentary Finance Committee President Ibrahim Kanaan both announced on Friday their departure for Washington, where they are to meet with International Monetary Fund (IMF) officials monitoring the progress of reforms in Lebanon.
A source familiar with the visit says the new Banque du Liban governor, Karim Souhaid, will also attend the meetings, which are taking place amid the IMF and World Bank's broader spring meetings in the U.S. capital.
Jaber said that Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri had assured him that he will call for Parliament sessions "in the coming days" to vote on the reform laws expected by the IMF. These reforms mostly concern banking reforms and amending banking secrecy laws, according to the financial institution's conditions.
During a quick visit to Beirut at the beginning of April — his second since the formation of Nawaf Salam's government — the IMF's Lebanon mission chief, Ernesto Ramirez Rigo, urged several Lebanese deputies to speed up reform efforts.
While in Washington, Jaber will also meet with senior officials from banks and international funds, with organizations and groups working with the IMF, with a group of Lebanese-origin organizations, as well as a general meeting at the Lebanese embassy in Washington. Reconstruction financing will be on the agenda at these meetings, where Jaber will be presenting Lebanon's recently approved financial and monetary reform measures.
Kanaan's much briefer statement simply mentioned a "week-long visit that will include political and financial meetings with those responsible for the Lebanese dossier within the American administration, the State Department, the Treasury Department, and Congress, in addition to meetings with the Lebanese diaspora."
The Salam government has made a new official request to the IMF on behalf of Lebanon to be admitted into an IMF financial assistance program this winter, a move that restarts the negotiation process initiated, with little progress, by the previous government of Najib Mikati.
