BEIRUT (Reuters) - The World Bank said Lebanese politicians' assertions that frozen deposits in the country's collapsed banking sector are sacred were "cruel" because they "blatantly contradict reality". Lebanon is now in the third year of a financial meltdown that left eight out of 10 poor people, which the World Bank says is deliberate and may be one of the three worst financial meltdowns in modern times. "Political slogans about the sacredness of deposits are hollow and opportunistic. Indeed, the misuse of the term by politicians is cruel," the World Bank says in a report released on Tuesday. The report adds, "Not only does the term blatantly contradict reality, but it also prevents solutions from being found to protect most, if not all, small and medium-sized dollar and cash deposits." The report notes that losses in the financial sector, estimated by the government at more than $70 billion, should have been accepted at the beginning of the crisis by bank shareholders and major creditors "who benefited greatly during these 30 years from a highly asymmetric economic model." The report explores whether the country's economic model since the early 1990s amounts to a Ponzi scheme, a type of fraud that ensures returns are paid to existing investors out of new investors' money. A Lebanese government spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.