Lebanon asks World Bank for guarantees to future loans

The Lebanese government asked World Bank director James Wolfensohn to discuss the possibilities for presenting guarantees for loans held by the government with international parties or in the world finance markets.

The Lebanese bank's governor Riad Salama told ArabicNews.com that the head of the World Bank considered the results achieved by the Lebanese economy to be very important and granted confidence and stability to investors, where it has many reflections, especially on the social situation.

Then he added that Wolfensohn emphasized maintaining confidence in any economy because it is impossible to restore confidence quickly, and the economic costs of a loss of confidence would be very high.

Governor Salama stated that the Lebanese people explained to the World Bank's manager the financial situation and he emphasized that to settle down the situation in Lebanon necessitates a strong financial sector.

Wolfensohn in his visit to Lebanon coming from Syria had met with Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.