<p>Lebanon's economic collapse is likely to rank among the world's worst financial crises since the mid-19th century, the World Bank said in a damning report released Tuesday.</p>.<p>The report predicts that Lebanon's economy will shrink by close to 10 per cent in 2021 and stresses there is "no clear turning point in the horizon".</p>.<p>Lebanon defaulted on its debt last year, the currency lost around 85 per cent of its value and poverty is devastating a country once seen as a beacon of prosperity in the region.</p>.<p>"The economic and financial crisis is likely to rank in the top 10, possibly top 3, most severe crisis episodes globally since the mid-nineteenth century," the report said.</p>.<p>The latest World Bank Lebanon Economic Monitor report, entitled "Lebanon Sinking: To the Top 3", said such brutal economic collapses are usually the result of war.</p>.<p>The complete meltdown of Lebanon's economy over the past 18 months is widely blamed on corruption and mismanagement by the country's hereditary political elite.</p>.<p>"Policy responses by Lebanon's leadership to these challenges have been highly inadequate," the report says.</p>.<p>Lebanon's ruling class has failed to act on the country's worst emergency in a generation, which was compounded by the coronavirus pandemic and a devastating explosion at Beirut port last August.</p>.<p>"The increasingly dire socio-economic conditions risk systemic national failings with regional and potentially global effects," the World Bank said.</p>.<p>The International Monetary Fund has offered assistance but the country's political barons have failed to even form a government that could deliver the reforms on which foreign aid is conditioned.</p>.<p>"Subject to extraordinarily high uncertainty, real GDP is projected to contract by a further 9.5 per cent in 2021," according to the World Bank, dashing any hopes of a quick recovery.</p>.<p>According to the monetary institution, the economy contracted by 6.7 per cent in 2019 and 20.3 per cent in 2020.</p>
<p>Lebanon's economic collapse is likely to rank among the world's worst financial crises since the mid-19th century, the World Bank said in a damning report released Tuesday.</p>.<p>The report predicts that Lebanon's economy will shrink by close to 10 per cent in 2021 and stresses there is "no clear turning point in the horizon".</p>.<p>Lebanon defaulted on its debt last year, the currency lost around 85 per cent of its value and poverty is devastating a country once seen as a beacon of prosperity in the region.</p>.<p>"The economic and financial crisis is likely to rank in the top 10, possibly top 3, most severe crisis episodes globally since the mid-nineteenth century," the report said.</p>.<p>The latest World Bank Lebanon Economic Monitor report, entitled "Lebanon Sinking: To the Top 3", said such brutal economic collapses are usually the result of war.</p>.<p>The complete meltdown of Lebanon's economy over the past 18 months is widely blamed on corruption and mismanagement by the country's hereditary political elite.</p>.<p>"Policy responses by Lebanon's leadership to these challenges have been highly inadequate," the report says.</p>.<p>Lebanon's ruling class has failed to act on the country's worst emergency in a generation, which was compounded by the coronavirus pandemic and a devastating explosion at Beirut port last August.</p>.<p>"The increasingly dire socio-economic conditions risk systemic national failings with regional and potentially global effects," the World Bank said.</p>.<p>The International Monetary Fund has offered assistance but the country's political barons have failed to even form a government that could deliver the reforms on which foreign aid is conditioned.</p>.<p>"Subject to extraordinarily high uncertainty, real GDP is projected to contract by a further 9.5 per cent in 2021," according to the World Bank, dashing any hopes of a quick recovery.</p>.<p>According to the monetary institution, the economy contracted by 6.7 per cent in 2019 and 20.3 per cent in 2020.</p>