Demonstrators blocked roads after the Lebanese pound fell lower. As poverty and hunger spreads, pressure is mounting on politicians to form a new government.
The Lebanese currency tumbled to a new low on Tuesday, enraging a population already suffering from the country’s financial meltdown.
With the crisis worsening, caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab threatened to stop performing his duties in a bid to pressure politicians to forge a new Cabinet.
Caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab warned of “chaos” if a new government isn’t formed soon
What did Diab say?
In his nationally televised speech on Saturday, Diab said he was prepared to suspend his caretaker duties “if it helps to form a government.”
“The country is confronted with enormous challenges that a normal government cannot face without political consensus,” said Diab. “So how can a caretaker government face these challenges?”
Diab warned Saturday against inaction and appealed to politicians to put aside differences and quickly form a new government that can attract desperately needed foreign assistance.
“What are you waiting for, more collapse? More suffering? Chaos?” Diab said, chiding senior politicians without naming them for continuing to debate over the future shape and size of the government.
“What will having one minister more or less [in the Cabinet] do if the entire country collapses,” he asked.
“Lebanon is in grave danger and the Lebanese are paying the price.”
What is happening to Lebanon’s economy?
Lebanon’s two year-long financial crisis shows no signs of ending as joblessness spreads along with hunger.
The collapse of the Lebanese pound, to 11,000 to the US dollar on Tuesday, was the last straw for citizens already suffering from steeply rising prices on consumer goods such as diapers and cereals.
The financial crash has also resulted in delays in the arrival of fuel shipments, leading to more extended power cuts around the country, which in some areas now are stretching more than 12 hours a day.
The crisis has driven nearly half the population of the small country of six million into poverty.
“Doesn’t the scramble for milk constitute a sufficient incentive to transcend formalities and roughen out the edges in order to form a government?” Diab said, referring to a recent Beirut supermarket incident in which shoppers fought over powdered milk.
The now viral video seemingly underscores the desperate state of the economy.
“Social conditions are aggravating, financial conditions are putting a severe strain on the country, political conditions are increasingly complex,” Diab added in his speech.
What can a new government do?
The nation has been drifting since August when Diab’s cabinet resigned following the massive Beirut port explosion that devastated much of the city.
Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri was nominated in October but has failed to form a new Cabinet due to the political deadlock between him and President Michel Aoun.
Despite Lebanon’s need for foreign currency, international donors have said they will only help the country financially if major reforms are implemented to fight widespread corruption, which has brought the nation to the brink of bankruptcy.
A new Cabinet would be in a position to institute the necessary financial reforms.
OTTAWA – The parliamentary budget officer says the federal government likely failed to keep its deficit below its promised $40 billion cap in the last fiscal year.
However the PBO also projects in its latest economic and fiscal outlook today that weak economic growth this year will begin to rebound in 2025.
The budget watchdog estimates in its report that the federal government posted a $46.8 billion deficit for the 2023-24 fiscal year.
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland pledged a year ago to keep the deficit capped at $40 billion and in her spring budget said the deficit for 2023-24 stayed in line with that promise.
The final tally of the last year’s deficit will be confirmed when the government publishes its annual public accounts report this fall.
The PBO says economic growth will remain tepid this year but will rebound in 2025 as the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts stimulate spending and business investment.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says the level of food insecurity increased in 2022 as inflation hit peak levels.
In a report using data from the Canadian community health survey, the agency says 15.6 per cent of households experienced some level of food insecurity in 2022 after being relatively stable from 2017 to 2021.
The reading was up from 9.6 per cent in 2017 and 11.6 per cent in 2018.
Statistics Canada says the prevalence of household food insecurity was slightly lower and stable during the pandemic years as it fell to 8.5 per cent in the fall of 2020 and 9.1 per cent in 2021.
In addition to an increase in the prevalence of food insecurity in 2022, the agency says there was an increase in the severity as more households reported moderate or severe food insecurity.
It also noted an increase in the number of Canadians living in moderately or severely food insecure households was also seen in the Canadian income survey data collected in the first half of 2023.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct 16, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says manufacturing sales in August fell to their lowest level since January 2022 as sales in the primary metal and petroleum and coal product subsectors fell.
The agency says manufacturing sales fell 1.3 per cent to $69.4 billion in August, after rising 1.1 per cent in July.
The drop came as sales in the primary metal subsector dropped 6.4 per cent to $5.3 billion in August, on lower prices and lower volumes.
Sales in the petroleum and coal product subsector fell 3.7 per cent to $7.8 billion in August on lower prices.
Meanwhile, sales of aerospace products and parts rose 7.3 per cent to $2.7 billion in August and wood product sales increased 3.8 per cent to $3.1 billion.
Overall manufacturing sales in constant dollars fell 0.8 per cent in August.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2024.
