Outgoing Lebanon government approves economic recovery plan

By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanon’s information minister says the country’s outgoing government has approved a recovery plan for pulling the Mideast nation out of its economic meltdown. The development on Friday came during the Cabinet’s last official meeting before it becomes a caretaker government following last weekend’s parliamentary elections. The plan is a first step on a difficult and complicated road with the goal to wrest Lebanon out of the worst economic crisis in its modern history. The crisis is rooted in decades of corruption and mismanagement. Parliament however still has to approve the plan, which includes restructuring the country’s hard-hit banking sector and amending decades-old banking secrecy laws.