BEIRUT, April 9 (Xinhua) -- Lebanon's Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh on Tuesday announced the release of a new package of subsidized loans valued at about 1 billion U.S. dollars, the National News Agency reported.
"The new subsidized loans include 500 million U.S. dollars for the productive sectors, 220 million U.S. dollars for housing loans, 100 million U.S. dollars for Lebanese expatriates which will be mostly used to purchase apartments in Lebanon," Salameh said in his speech at a business and financial forum held in Beirut.
Salameh added that the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development has also offered Lebanon a loan valued at 165 million dollars to be used for housing loans.
The governor said that this new stimulus package will likely result in an increase in GDP growth by 1.5 percent in 2019.
He added that the cost of borrowing has increased in Lebanon but subsidized loans will help reduce it.
