The Minister of Economy and Trade in the caretaker government, Amin Salam, stated after participating in a session of the Finance and Budget Committee in the Nijmeh Square: "We had a review session with the Finance and Budget Committee regarding the World Bank's emergency loan for wheat supplies. I would like to say that we obtained full approval on the draft law presented in the last session. There were some revisions from the Finance and Budget Committee regarding the payment mechanism and the relationship between the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank of Lebanon, and the Ministry of Economy in implementing this loan."
He added: "The questions from the deputies were clarified and answered, and the final framework for implementation was established under the approved draft law. The most important thing is that we secured nearly nine months of wheat for Lebanon and maintained the price of the bread bundle. This, to me, is the most important thing; the rest are all details about how we account, how we coordinate, and how the Central Bank pays; all these matters were discussed today in the committee and we reached an agreement on them. We will have a period of three weeks to a month at most from today to actually start and talk about the full implementation of the World Bank loan. This ensures us stability and assurance, and thus we have given the Lebanese citizen their right to a fair program that preserves their right to have wheat in the country and maintains the supported price of the bread bundle until matters improve."
Salam continued: "From now until nine months, God willing, Lebanon will see better days and improved economic conditions. There is a discussion about delaying the implementation period of this loan for new support for the social safety net and food security so that we do not continue to adopt and apply old support policies that led us to all the challenges we have faced in the past nine months. This means that the Lebanese state no longer supports goods. There will be direct support programs for the citizens, which will take place once we finish implementing the World Bank loan, and with the decrease in wheat prices, the nine months can extend beyond that."
In response to a question, Salam said: "Bakery owners are the last who should protest, but after our work and our placement of controls on every 'mill' and 'bakery,' bread has become available. This means the problem became evident in where it was; they used to attribute the problem elsewhere."
