BEIRUT, April 2 Reuters Lebanon will run out of money to fund basic imports by the end of May and delays in launching a plan to reduce subsidies are costing 500 million a month, the caretaker finance minister, Ghazi Wazni, said.

As Lebanons economy crumbles, the central bank has asked the caretaker cabinet to decide how to gradually lift subsidies to ration remaining foreign currency reserves, Wazni told Reuters on Thursday.

The government must speed this up. The cost of wasting time is very high. With every delay, it becomes higher, he said.

Lebanons financial meltdown is fuelling hunger and unrest in the countrys gravest crisis since its 19751990 civil war.

The subsidy plan scales down a list of subsidised foods from 300 to 100 goods, reduces fuel and medicine subsidies and introduces a ration card for 800,000 poor families, to roughly halve 6 billion in annual spending on subsidies, Wazni said.

The overall subsidy plan will have to get the green light from parliament since it must approve funding for the cards, and the caretaker prime minister in turn wants the introduction of the cards tied to subsidy removal, he said, outlining a process that will likely take time.

Meanwhile, foreign reserves are draining away faster than officials are making serious moves to ration the money left, back key imports and help the most vulnerable.

The currency has lost most of its value since late 2019, making more than half the population poor as prices soar.

Still,…