by Dana Halawi
BEIRUT, July 29 (Xinhua) -- Some Lebanon's local economists voiced concerns about the impact of cabinet paralysis on the international community's outlook towards Lebanon.
However, others seemed to be upbeat about the country's capability of overcoming the political paralysis caused by Mount Lebanon's security incident late last month.
"The international community and rating agencies as well focus a lot on the political and security situation in the country when they issue their stances or reports," economist Ghazi Wazne told Xinhua.
Wazne believes that the prevailing cabinet paralysis will have a bad impact on Lebanon's image by sending a negative signal to the international community.
Various ministers in the cabinet called for ending the political paralysis in the country to restore economic activities and implement the reforms that were approved by the 2019 state budget aimed at reducing the country's fiscal deficit.
Lebanon's Minister of State for Information Technology Adel Afiouni urged officials to stop political bickering and start with the implementation of reforms to save the country.
"We are in race with time and we cannot afford to wait more to save the economy. We are also being monitored by rating agencies and markets," Afiouni said.
He added that the country is going through very harsh economic and financial circumstances which should be the only focus of politicians for the time being.
Lebanon's Minister of State for Foreign Trade Hassan Mourad urged officials to stop their political squabbles because "people's economic and living concerns must be of utmost priority to the government."
Lebanon's cabinet has not met since June 27, three days before a security incident taking place in Aley, killing two men escorting Minister of State for Refugee Affairs Saleh Gharib through the town of Qabr Shmoun, and injuring at least four others.
The shooting took place as supporters of the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party Walid Jumblatt, tried to block the road in order to oppose a visit to a nearby town by Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil.
This incident prompted Prime Minister Saad Hariri to avoid calling for a meeting for the council of ministers to discuss several urgent economic and financial topics on the government's agenda.
Hariri believes that holding a government meeting before reaching a solution to Mount Lebanon's incident would further escalate tensions between different political parties.
While some economists and officials voiced their concerns about the impact of cabinet paralysis on Lebanon's image, others seemed to feel at ease about a positive ending for the current political crisis.
Mohammad Aboul Hassan, financial analyst and banker, said that political parties will finally find a solution to their political rift because it is not in the interest of anyone to plunge the country in uncertainty.
Hassan added that there have been numerous positive signals in Lebanon in the past few weeks or months including the diplomatic visits to the country by senior political figures and delegation from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
Marwan Barakat, chief economist and head of research at Bank Audi, said that political paralysis will not impact Lebanon's image because the country has already taken several important measures that prove to the international community the seriousness of Lebanon to undertake major reforms.
"We sent two good signals in the past weeks including the decline in fiscal deficit in the 2019 state budget and the finance ministry's serious promises to deliver and study the 2020 budget and approve it by the government and parliament before the end of this year," he said.
According to Barakat, these measures were highly welcomed by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank which emphasize the importance of these steps in achieving sustainable growth.
