Economy
According to the report on inflow of remittances to developing countries, the World Bank estimated remittance inflows to Lebanon at $6 billion in 2008, constituting an increase of 4% from 2007. Lebanon remittances stood at $5.77 billion in 2007, $5.2 billion in 2006 and $4.9 billion in 2005. Lebanon was the 18th largest recipient of remittances in 2008 and the third largest among 12 countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, coming behind Egypt with $9.5 billion and Morocco with $6.7 billion. In addition, Lebanon was the fourth largest recipient of remittances among 36 Upper Middle Income Countries. Meanwhile, the World Bank estimated expatriated remittances to Lebanon to be equivalent to 24.4% of GDP in 2007, the fifth highest ratio in the world. The World Bank also noted that remittances from the GCC account for 26%, or $9 billion, of flows to the MENA region in 2008. It said that a continuation of the recent drop in oil prices would make the GCC economies more vulnerable and anticipated that remittance flows from the GCC countries to Lebanon would fall by 9% in 2009 compared to a rise of 38% in 2008.
According to the Order of Engineers of Beirut and Tripoli, construction permits totaled 9,471,338 million square meters in the first ten months of 2008, up by 31.4% relative to the same period of the previous year. Mount Lebanon accounted for the majority of distributed construction permits with 49% of the total, followed by South Lebanon which accounted for 16.4%, North Lebanon and Beirut with 14.5% and the Bekaa Valley with about 4.9%.
According to the Ministry of Industry, industrial exports reached $2.27 billion over the first nine months of 2008, up from $1.73 billion in the same period of 2007. Industrial exports reached $271 million in September 2008, a 5.44% month on month increase. Base metals exports remained in the first place accounting for 20% of total industrial exports, followed by exports of machinery and mechanical appliances with 17% of the total, and exports of chemical products with 14.44%. Germany was the main source of imports of industrial equipments, accounting for 25.32% of the total, followed by Italy and China with 23.32% and 15.54%, respectively.
Lebanon's trade deficit reached $10.4 billion during the first ten months of 2008, increasing by 40.8% compared to the same period of 2007. The deficit widened because of the 37.5% increase in imports during the first ten months of 2008 compared to the same period last year, in spite of a 27% growth in exports during the same reporting period. In terms of countries of origin, the United States ranked first with $1.4 billion total imports to Lebanon, followed by China and France with $1.2 billion each. As for countries of destination, the United Arab Emirates ranked first, followed by Switzerland and Iraq.
Banking & Finance
The extraordinary general assembly of Byblos Bank approved the purchase of the Lebanese branch of the Unicredit Banca Di Roma. The latter had total assets of $80 million, loans of $25.5 million and customer deposits of $66 million at the end of 2007.
Bank of Sharjah (BOS) approved selling 30% of its unit Emirates Lebanon Bank to El Capital FZCO. Emirates Lebanon Bank, formerly known as Banque de la Bekaa, is currently 81% owned by BOS and 19% by Banque Nationale de Paris Intercontinentale.
Business
Alfa, one of the two mobile-phone operators in Lebanon, intends to auction off a new range of so-called platinum numbers. The company will auction 50 numbers divided into three categories: platinum, gold and silver. Alfa also plans to add 75,000 lines to the existing network to be accomplished in six weeks. At present, there are 1.2 million mobile subscribers in Lebanon for a penetration rate of approximately 35%. It is worth noting that MTC touch, the other mobile operator, managed to raise nearly $2.5 million through the sale of 'golden' cellular numbers.