LIMS participated at the Asia Liberty Forum hosted by Atlas Network in New Delhi on September 20–21. The event provided a platform to meet organizations from across the globe, while sharing challenges and experiences on how to effectively advance market reforms.

Dr. Patrick Mardini, CEO of LIMS, outlined a landmark achievement for Lebanon’s liberty movement: after years of relentless advocacy by LIMS, the central bank halted all government financing. This decisive reform ended a four-year hyperinflation cycle, with levels surpassing those of Venezuela and Zimbabwe, which had devastated livelihoods and prosperity. This newfound monetary discipline enabled Lebanon to reach a zero fiscal deficit in 2023 for the first time in decades. With the central bank no longer underwriting government expenses, deficit spending was effectively restrained. This wave of reform began with the elimination of the Central Bank Subsidy Program (CBSP) and price controls, which had depleted resources and led to critical shortages of essentials like fuel, medicine, food, and infant formula.

LIMS played a pivotal role in shifting public opinion and ultimately reshaping Lebanon’s economic direction. The prevailing narrative had largely attributed the shortages to insufficient government spending on subsidies, fueling calls for the central bank to increase CBSP financing. This belief was so pervasive that Iran attempted to leverage the crisis, offering fuel to Lebanon while citing a so-called “Western embargo” as the root cause of the outages. Even the U.S. appeared to support this interpretation, proposing a partnership with Egypt and Jordan to facilitate gas and electricity imports as a response. Both countries promoted stopgap solutions, focusing on fuel imports to alleviate shortages without addressing the deeper issue: distorted price structures.

LIMS fought back arguing that price controls —not a shortage of imports—were the root cause of these pervasive shortages. Through a sustained campaign, LIMS shifted public opinion, revealing that goods were readily available on the black market at full market prices and were re-exported to Syria. Yet, domestically, these essentials remained scarce at the government’s controlled prices. LIMS further highlighted the exorbitant cost of these subsidies, totaling $6.4 billion—more than twice Lebanon’s government budget. This unsustainable expense drained the central bank’s reserves without parliamentary oversight, fueling hyperinflation and pushing critical sectors, such as energy and healthcare, to the edge of collapse.

In illustrating the strategic direction of LIMS, Dr. Mardini emphasized the importance of having a clear vision, a strong strategy, effective managerial skills, deep knowledge of economic policies, openness to new ideas and technologies, and a results-oriented approach. He cited the example of integrating AI into LIMS’s advocacy work.