Salameh says growth in economy will be negative in 2013

The “An-Nahar” daily was able to obtain a copy of the presentation that Lebanon’s Central Bank bank governor Riad Salameh made to the cabinet last week in which he warned of the consequences of the increases in salaries and ranks and stressed that the growth of the economy will be negative in 2013 and that the public debt and job opportunities will face difficulties .

Here is a summary of what Salameh told the cabinet :

– Inflation will go up to 6 percent this year, excluding any increase in salaries and ranks.

– The deficit was 2 billion Dollars at the end of September and cold hit $2.6 billion by the end of this year .

– Salameh expressed concern that the interest rates may have to be increased by one percentage point as a result of the inflation , deficit and salary increases knowing that each one percentage point will increase debt service by more than $ 560 million annually.