Following the publication of the report by the global rating agency "Standard & Poor's" S&P today, the Ministry of Finance issued the following clarification: "This semi-annual report is part of the credit rating process with Standard & Poor's S&P and the periodic review of the rating. It concluded meetings and discussions between the Standard & Poor's S&P global rating agency and local stakeholders after the Ministry of Finance recently coordinated a series of meetings between them and the agency, as well as among stakeholders in Lebanon, including the Central Bank of Lebanon, to enable S&P to assess the situation and provide a rating that reflects the realistic picture of the financial, monetary, and economic conditions in the country.
Through these meetings, particularly those held with the Ministry of Finance, despite the existing challenges regarding the difficulty of publishing figures, the Ministry has sought to provide the agency with available data on developments regarding public finances, specifically concerning public debt, and to offer all necessary clarifications to facilitate the agency's assessment under the best conditions, which did not happen with Fitch.
It is important to note that alongside the administrative obstacles regarding human and technological resources that have diminished at the Ministry of Finance due to the severe crises the country has faced, the sharp fluctuations in exchange rates and the multiplicity of exchange rates in previous years have hindered the Ministry's ability to publish figures that reflect the true reality. Therefore, the Ministry of Finance is making every effort to remove these barriers so that it can resume publishing the financial situation monthly according to internationally accepted standards, with assistance from funding entities and support from specialists in this field.
In this context, the Ministry of Finance recently briefed the Cabinet on the exchange rates used in public accounting for recording revenues and expenditures in accounting records, aiming to complete the process of budget audits for previous years and publish public finance figures that are closer to reality without creating discrepancies that distort their accuracy."
