{"id":16637,"date":"2019-05-22T12:38:34","date_gmt":"2019-05-22T12:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/?p=16637"},"modified":"2019-05-22T12:38:34","modified_gmt":"2019-05-22T12:38:34","slug":"lebanon-can-overcome-economic-challenges-aoun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/lebanon-can-overcome-economic-challenges-aoun\/","title":{"rendered":"Lebanon can overcome economic challenges: Aoun"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"item-text\">\n<p><strong>Lebanese President Michel Aoun says even though the country\u2019s economy is in the\u00a0doldrums,\u00a0economic reforms and austerity measures envisioned in the 2019 state budget will help the economic\u00a0future look\u00a0certain.<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThere are protests and complaints by members of the public. Nevertheless, we would have plunged into the abyss if had not followed this path. We have inherited more than $80 billion in debt, as well as lack of an economic policy. We do not produce anything, while production is the basis of economy. Therefore, what we did was necessary, and people will realize its importance only after they see its positive results soon,\u201d he said on Tuesday.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>He added, \u201cI have always spoken to people and said that the (economic) situation is difficult, but we can overcome it. The question is: \u201cHow can we get out of the crisis if the Lebanese do not contribute to the success of the measures taken to achieve the desired goal?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cWhat we are doing now will bring Lebanon back to its best position in the Middle East. As to what is happening around us, we have maintained security and stability and enjoyed a better security level than Europe. We hope to witness a very promising tourist season this year\u2026 We have also started to prepare for an economic approach to promote the country and put it on the right path,\u201d Aoun pointed out.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The remarks came a day after thousands of people staged a nationwide strike in Lebanon to express their deep resentment at Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri\u2019s pledge for \u201cdifficult and painful\u201d reforms to control spending, and concerns about any pension or benefit cuts.<\/p>\n<p>One protester sustained injuries and was taken to hospital after security forces clashed with a group of protesters outside the Grand Serail, which is the official headquarters of the prime minister and a few blocks away from Nijmeh Square, where parliament is located, in the capital Beirut.<\/p>\n<p>Lebanon has one of the world\u2019s highest public debt burdens. Its fiscal deficit ballooned to 11.2 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) last year, up from 6.1 percent the year before. The country\u2019s international reserves fell to $39.7 billion as well.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lebanese President Michel Aoun says even though the country\u2019s economy is in the\u00a0doldrums,\u00a0economic reforms and austerity measures envisioned in the 2019 state budget will help the economic\u00a0future look\u00a0certain. \u201cThere are protests and complaints by members of the public. Nevertheless, we would have plunged into the abyss if had not followed this path. We have inherited &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":16638,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-culture","category-news-and-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16637"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16639,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16637\/revisions\/16639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}