World Bank warns some Lebanon projects might be cancelled

A senior World Bank official says the Lebanese economy is “not doing great” and urged the country’s leaders to approve projects put forward by the international lender, saying otherwise they would be cancelled.

Ferid Belhaj, the bank’s vice president for the Middle East and North Africa, told reporters in Beirut on Tuesday that the economy is “in a state of fragility.”

Lebanon’s economy has suffered from the seven-year civil war in neighboring Syria, which has caused occasional spillovers of violence and has sent more than 1 million refugees across the border. Syrian refugees now make up about a quarter of Lebanon’s population.

Corruption-plagued Lebanon has one of the highest debt ratios in the world, at 152 percent of the gross domestic product, and growth has been slow since 2011.