BEIRUT (Reuters) - France told Lebanon on Thursday it had no alternative to an IMF programme as it wrestles with an acute financial crisis and Beirut must enact reforms urgently if it is to win international support. The financial crisis, rooted in decades of state corruption and waste, marks the biggest threat to Lebanon's stability since the 1975-90 civil war. Le Drian said actions in the power sector so far were not encouraging. Lebanon, with one of the highest public debt burdens in the world, defaulted on its foreign currency sovereign debt in March, citing critically low reserves. (Reporting by Tom Perry and Ghaida Ghantous in Beirut and John Irish in Paris; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne, William Maclean)

Source: The Star July 23, 2020 07:30 UTC