Lebanon (Thursday, 10:00 AM)

If I were to summarize the macro situation in Lebanon in one word, I would say it's abnormal. This is not the Lebanon that we want. This is not the Lebanon we're used to, and this is certainly not the Lebanon that we imagine could be.

Yassine Jaber Minister of Finance, Lebanon

Our forecast is that we're going to grow at 5 percent . . . The bad news though is that it's happening on the base of a fairly weak economy last year, so it's not something to really celebrate . . . We're happy that finally, after years and years of no growth, we're finally seeing some growth, but this is not the kind of sustainable growth we want.

We're finding a constructive partner with the IMF, with the World Bank . . . We're just moving along, trying to go through all these [reforms] to get to the final step, which is a program that helps our economy and allows us to get transformed.

We're not doing this because the IMF wants us to do it. Nobody's going to impose any conditions on us. We're doing what's good for us.

There’s just not going to be prosperity without the sovereignty of the state. . . The state has to come back on the monopoly of the arms . . . We're moving in the direction that I think is consistent with this idea.

What is the government’s approach for Plan B in case this deal with the IMF does not go through?

Amer Bisat Minister of Economy and Trade, Lebanon

Nour Dabboussi

Yassine Jaber Minister of Finance, Lebanon

Amer Bisat Minister of Economy and Trade, Lebanon