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Minister: Lebanon Cannot Ask for Donor Funding Without Passing 2018 Budget


FILE - Lebanese Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil speaks during a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon, March 30, 2017.
FILE - Lebanese Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil speaks during a press conference in Beirut, Lebanon, March 30, 2017.

Lebanon cannot ask for support at an upcoming donor conference unless it first passes the 2018 budget, Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil said on Monday.

Political tensions had left Lebanon without a government budget from 2005 until it passed one last year. The government must now agree a budget for 2018.

Khalil said there was a commitment to finalizing the 2018 budget and referring it to parliament for approval by end of the month. If this is done within 15 days there is a possibility it will be approved before parliamentary elections scheduled for May, he said in a televised statement.

Lebanon is expected to ask donors at a variety of international meetings this year for support for its economy and army, and to help it deal with the approximately one million Syrian refugees it is hosting.

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    Reuters

    Reuters is a news agency founded in 1851 and owned by the Thomson Reuters Corporation based in Toronto, Canada. One of the world's largest wire services, it provides financial news as well as international coverage in over 16 languages to more than 1000 newspapers and 750 broadcasters around the globe.

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