World Bank accuses Lebanese politicians of cruelty over deposit promises

FILE PHOTO: A participant stands near a logo of World Bank at the International Monetary Fund - World Bank Annual Meeting 2018 in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, October 12, 2018. REUTERS/Johannes P. Christo

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The World Bank has said that assertions by Lebanese politicians that deposits kept in the country's collapsed banking sector are sacred are "cruel" because they "flagrantly contradict the reality."

Lebanon is in the third year of a financial meltdown that has left eight in ten people poor and which the World Bank says is both deliberate and may be one of the three worst in modern times.