Written by Joseph Farah
Translated by Lynn Waked
NNA – Economic recession in Lebanon continues as the downturn of the economic indicators continues in light of the negative impact of both political and security crises in the region.
"A seriously drained situation" was how the Economic Parliamentary Committee depicted the situation in Lebanon after meeting last week with the tourism sector and after its meeting yesterday with the Commercial sector.
It is undoubtful that the economic reality is unpleasant for the Lebanese officials who may resort to temporary solutions which may, in turn, lead to freezing our country's economic recession, waiting for the regional answer.
In a bid to work things out on the domestic level, tourism sectors gathered recently and laid down a few solutions to stop the "tourism bleeding."
After learning about the drastic 45% slump down in Beirut hotels, the violent 20% decrease in Kafalat institution's demands for loans and the 58% tourism downturn compared to year 2010, tourism sectors proposed a government's subsidy to diesel, a reduction of travel tickets' prices, an extension for the backed loans from seven to ten years and finding alternative markets to promote Lebanese goods and commodities.
Nicolas Chammas, head of the Lebanese Traders Association and a member of the Economic Committees, said that participants were looking to halt the decline in leading economic indicators.
"The decline in the sector reached 70% in some of the Lebanese regions," he said and warned that this might lead to closing some of the institutions or sacking the employees to replace them with less-paid ones.
"The purchasing power of local residents has weakened due to rising unemployment and local residents' drop in demand as well as the declining number of tourists, mainly from Gulf countries.”
Economic experts in Lebanon believe that the recession will still be ongoing provided that the situation in Syria will still be abating at the political and security levels, and since Syria is the sole land exit for the Lebanese goods.
Experts also said that the growth rates exceed 0% this year, after they exceeded 8 % in 2010. Bank loans, investments, and the real estate index also witnessed a huge downturn in different sectors. All of this lead to a decline in employment rates and thus amplified the cries of various economic indicators.
In that matter, LCB Governor Riyad Salemeh agreed on extending the term of loans from seven to ten years, in the hope that it would be a push forward to extract the Lebanese economy from this deep puddle it has been wallowing in.
