BEIRUT — Lebanon is set to declare a state of economic emergency, initiating plans to accelerate reforms in an effort to save the country's ailing economy.

Prime Minister Saad Hariri reiterated the importance of reducing the country's deficit to reporters Monday, following a meeting between his cabinet and political leaders.

The meeting comes amid heightened tensions on the southern border of Lebanon between Hezbollah and Israel. It was not an official gathering of ministers, but was seen as necessary to gain consensus within the government.

"Those people who had the meeting at the palace, they are not the official government which can, according to the constitution, take decisions. But they are the leaders of all the most of the religious communities in Lebanon, and sects, who are running the government and who are represented by the government," Sarkis Naoum, a political analyst and senior columnist at the An-Nahar newspaper, told CNBC's Hadley Gamble Tuesday.

"That's why their decisions are better and more influential, and maybe (more) promising than the discussions in the Council of Ministers," he added.