The cost of recovery after the Beirut bombing is equivalent to $ 2.5 billion.

Beirut: Lebanon needs more than $ 2.5 billion to overcome the aftermath of the terrible Beirut port explosion, according to what the World Bank Group, the United Nations and the European Union announced on Friday during the launch of a reform framework, recovery and 18-month reconstruction.

The three donors, who held a press conference at the United Nations headquarters in Beirut, coinciding with the course of four months after the explosion, estimated the value of the priority needs of the recovery path that focuses on the citizen in this context, estimated at 584 million dollars, of which 426 million dollars for the first year. “.

She said: “The cost of the course of reform and reconstruction in this context is estimated at two billion dollars.”

The explosion at the port on August 4 killed more than 200 people and injured more than 6,500. It severely damaged the port and several neighborhoods in the capital, displacing tens of thousands of families from their homes that were damaged or destroyed.

Authorities attributed the explosion, which was preceded by fire, to the storage of large quantities of ammonium nitrate years ago in one of the port’s pavilions without preventive measures. Authorities are investigating the circumstances and causes of the explosion and have so far detained 25 people, including the highest officials responsible for port management and security.

The 18-month framework follows two parallel tracks, the first focused on social and economic recovery “meeting the urgent needs of the most vulnerable populations and small businesses affected by the explosion.” The second track relates to reform and reconstruction, and focuses on “basic reforms to address the challenges of governance and recovery in Lebanon, which are preconditions for mobilizing international support for reconstruction beyond the track. of recovery “.

Among the “fundamental reforms,” ​​he called for “progress with the International Monetary Fund on the path to macroeconomic stability, debt and financial sector restructuring, central bank forensic accounting work, banking sector reform, imposition of controls on capital movements and the unification of exchange rates “. “.

He warned that “international support for the reconstruction priorities identified in this framework will depend on the government’s ability to make credible progress on reforms.”

Since last year, Lebanon has witnessed an unprecedented economic collapse, which coincided with the deterioration of the value of the local currency, the decline of foreign exchange reserves in the Central Bank, the increase in poverty rates to more than half the population and unemployment. The outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic, followed by the port explosion, exacerbated the situation.

On Tuesday, the World Bank suggested that the growth rate of real GDP fell sharply by 19.2 percent in 2020, after contracting by 6.7 percent in 2019. It said the collapse of the currency led to “inflation rates that exceeded 100 percent.”