Lebanon’s leaders hope tourism boom will help bypass IMF bailout reforms

( ) -q-30- UNDATED (Correspondent Jeremy House) “bolster the economy.”

Lebanon’s political elites are pushing a recovery plan for the country’s financial collapse that would allow them to sidestep tough reforms demanded by the International Monetary Fund.

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Out-cue: bolster the economy]

TAG: Correspondent Jeremy House reporting.

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VERBATIM: Economic experts and former officials say the recovery plan would largely shift the burden of paying to bail out the financial system away from senior politicians, their families and associates — and onto ordinary Lebanese. The IMF plan would audit banks and force them to sell assets and merge, putting the losses on powerful shareholders. Instead, politicians are hoping a boom in tourism, remittances from abroad and, eventually, revenues from new gas discoveries will bolster the economy.