A man walks across from the Beirut Port. (Credit: Sandrine Frem)
- The consecutive security incidents since Saturday, July 27 including the deadly strike in Majdal Shams, a Druze town in the Israeli-annexed Syrian Golan,, the strike in the southern suburbs of Beirut that killed senior Hezbollah commander Fouad Shukur and the assassination of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Lebanon have crippled this tourism season. The recent turn of events prompted most visitors, mainly expats, to expedite their return flights.
Travel agencies have been dealing with cancellations and booking changes. “Since Saturday, the daily number of arrivals among passengers has fallen from around 13,500 to 9,000 on average, which represents a drop of over 33 percent in these few days,” said Jean Abboud, president of the Association of Travel and Tourism Agencies in Lebanon to L’Orient-Le Jour.
“According to travel agencies data, around 25 percent of the people who came to Lebanon this summer are bringing forward the date of their return flight, for fear of being stranded should the situation get worse,” added Abboud.
- An increasing number of professionals in seaside resorts, restaurants, nightclubs and hotels see no positive end-in-sight any time soon amid the uncertain geopolitical situation, “Restaurant bookings have dropped by 40-50 percent in the last few days,” said Jean Beyrouthy, president of the syndicate of beaches and resorts and general secretary of the Federation of Lebanese Tourism Unions.
Tony Rami, president of the restaurant owners’ union, described the situation in his own words: “Customer numbers have been down sharply since Saturday, and this is not good news for the sector, whose business activity dropped by around 35 percent compared with last year.”
So far, five of the 20 or so concerts and shows scheduled for August have been canceled. This, however, is still a small number given the seriousness of the events and the instability they’ve spread across the country.
- Caretaker Economy Minister Amin Salam stressed that there is no need to engage in unnecessary food stockpiling and panic-buying following the recent escalation between Hezbollah and Israel.
“There are no food shortages nor any food crisis on the market today. We have enough food reserves to last for the next three to four months to come,” he said during an emergency meeting on Wednesday with representatives from the supermarkets, food importers, poultry, meat and food industrialists syndicates.
The minister also confirmed that import and export activities were still fully operational and new orders are still getting placed today, not counting the orders scheduled to be placed next week. “Ships carrying flour, wheat, meat, and chicken — amongst other things — are still reaching the country, and more are expected to reach Lebanon’s coast in the coming weeks,” he noted.
-Bank Audi's research department published its second quarterly report of the year, in which it points out that the Lebanese economy experienced "negative growth in the first half of 2024," mainly impacted by the "fallout from the war in southern Lebanon and its negative effects on the tourism and [...] investment sectors."
This observation was made before Shukur and Haniyeh’s assassinations. Back in January of this year, the Bank Audi research department pointed out that Israel’s War on Gaza and its repercussions in South Lebanon had dashed the country's hopes of growth similarly to last summer season which was driven by diaspora spending.
But with the latest events, the country's economic situation is likely to worsen further, while the tourism sector, one of the main drivers of the 2023 recovery, is the one "most severely affected" this year.
Passenger numbers at Beirut airport fell by 5.3 percent year-on-year in the first six months of 2024, while the number of foreign tourists was down by 14.5 percent. These latest events are also likely to further dampen the spirits of already discouraged investors, prompting them to once again postpone the implementation of previous investment decisions, warned the report.
- There are now 19 electronic transfer and payment companies, known as digital wallets, licensed by the Banque du Liban (BDL) in Lebanon. This significant increase, observed in just over a year, is the result of the publication of BDL Circular no. 667, in April 2023.
The use of digital wallets came to the fore after the crisis triggered at the end of 2019, causing Lebanese residents and diaspora to lose confidence in the banking sector due to illegal restrictions on deposit withdrawals.
The BDL has increased the number of licenses with the aim, among other things, of reducing the share of the cash economy, which has grown considerably in recent years and threatens the country's financial reputation. This coming fall, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) could place Lebanon on the gray list for several reasons, namely the predominance of a cash economy, which facilitates money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
- The Energy and Water Ministry set the price per kilowatt-hour (kWh) produced and sold in July by private or neighborhood electricity generators – which supply power to make up for the production deficit of the public supplier Électricité du Liban (EDL) – at LL32,868, or the equivalent of $0.37 at LL89,700-to-the-dollar rate.
The fixed tariff has risen by 3.6 percent compared with the rate imposed for June bills (LL 31,725 per kWh, or $0.36). This marks the end of a period of 5 months of consecutive declines, for a decrease of around 7.5 percent over this period.
- Fuel prices in Lebanon dropped on Friday, while the price of a gas canister remained unchanged, according to the latest rates published by the Energy and Water Ministry.
Here are the new rates:
Analysis of the week
A year has passed since Wassim Mansouri took over the reins at Lebanon’s Central Bank (BDL) following Riad Salameh’s departure. From day one, he spoke of a series of policies he planned to implement in close collaboration with the other vice-governors. Have the measures — which have been implemented by Mansouri — been effective? Is Mansouri’s record positive? Mounir Younes breaks down what the caretaker governor has done since he took over so far: