Sea view in Amchit. (Credit: Stephanie Bechara)
-Caretaker Energy and Water Minister Walid Fayad launched a call for tenders on Wednesday, through the public procurement authority platform, for the construction of a solar farm (a photovoltaic power station) with a total capacity of eight megawatts.
The plant, to be built along the Beirut River, will serve as an expansion of a power station previously built by the Energy Ministry in 2015 and dubbed the “Beirut River Solar Snake”(BRSS). This original plant has a total capacity of one megawatt.
-Caretaker Economy and Trade Minister Amine Salam announced Friday the release of a new monthly index for the prices of essential food products, developed in collaboration with the World Food Program (WFP). According to the minister, the index aims “to establish a unified system allowing consumers to monitor average prices of basic goods in Lebanon and to enhance the ministry’s ability to track price fluctuations and maintain food security.”
Named the Market Food Price Index (MFPI), it is calculated by looking at the dollar prices of 63 basic necessity food products, grouped into 12 categories. For July 2024, the first month for which data is published, the index reached 127.4 points, up 0.2 percent from the previous month and up 20 percent year-over-year.
-Prepared by the Finance Ministry and submitted on time for the second year in a row, the 2025 budget proposal was set to be discussed by the cabinet on Tuesday. The session was, however, canceled as the quorum was not reached due to retired Lebanese army soldiers blocking the roads to the Serail, to protest and demand a better quality of life.
This draft outlines a 39 percent increase in public spending compared to 2024, amounting to $4.77 billion, with a projected deficit of 4.11 percent. The state may consider financing this shortfall by issuing new treasury bonds (government bonds denominated in Lebanese lira). It also sets aside the equivalent of more than $600 million in Lebanese lira as budgetary reserves, an amount significantly higher than in previous years. The proposal has left both the private sector and labor unions largely dissatisfied.
-The Syrian Ministry of Transport announced a 50 percent reduction in transit fees for trucks transporting goods between Lebanon and Iraq, according to a statement from the Syrian government. These fees, which can amount to several thousand dollars per truck, are notably high. Transit between Lebanon and Gulf countries, which involves crossing the Nassib border post, is not affected by this decision. This is expected to have a positive impact on Lebanese agriculture exports.
-The U.S. Treasury Department announced Wednesday that it sanctioned a Lebanese network accused of smuggling oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to help fund Hezbollah. The sanctions targeted three individuals, five companies and two vessels that the Treasury said were "supervised by a senior member of Hezbollah's finance team and used profits from illicit LPG shipments to Syria to help generate revenue" for the group led by Hassan Nasrallah.
-The Lebanese banking sector continues to shrink, with the number of bank branches down from 800 (in the second half of the year) to 761 at the end of 2023, according to the Central Bank’s data compiled by Lebanon This Week from Byblos Bank. This represents a 34 percent drop compared to the end of 2019, and a 10.8 percent drop compared to the end of 2022. Commercial banks were the most hit, and had 741 branches (695 in Lebanon, and the remainder abroad) still open at the end of 2023.
The “zombie” sector has been dysfunctional and technically bankrupt since late 2019 and the start of the crisis into which the country is plunged. The state has still not begun to restructure it, despite several attempts to finalize a plan to oversee this operation. The salaries of a majority of employees have not been adjusted to compensate for the depreciation linked to the collapse of the Lebanese lira.
-The Global Environment Facility (GEF), financed through the World Bank, has granted $3.458 million to fight forest fires in sensitive regions of Lebanon. Caretaker Environment Minister Nasser Yassine has welcomed on Thursday the government's decision to approve this donation.
According to Yassine, the project complements the technical assistance provided by the World Bank in the field of forest fires, thanks to funding from the Progreen Trust Fund.
-Oyster, a U.S.-based payroll and human resources (HR) platform specialized in global employment, announced on Sep. 4 that it raised $59 million in Series D funding, according to a press release on its website. This brings the total amount raised to $286 million since the company’s inception in 2020, and increases its valuation to $1.2 billion.
Co-founded by Lebanese entrepreneur and CEO Tony Jamous and and his partner Jack Mardack, Oyster was launched during the Covid-19 pandemic to help companies recruit global talent and help individuals worldwide gain access to better opportunities – irrespective of location. Today, it has grown to encompass more than 550 employees based in over 60 countries.
-Lebanese urban eatery Zaatar W Zeit announced it has signed a franchising agreement with Indian Food and Beverage (F&B) experts Passion Cuisine to expand into India – with its first branch in Mumbai set to open in the first quarter of 2025.
-The prices of gasoline, diesel and heating oil continued to fall on Friday, while domestic gas cylinder prices remained stable, according to the new price list published by the Energy and Water Ministry.
Here are the new rates:
Analysis of the week
One of the transactions made through the Central Bank’s (BDL) “consulting account” contributed to the financing of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, according to a document reviewed by L’Orient-Le Jour. Read Mounir Younes’ piece:
Opinion of the week
Should banks, which are de facto (but not de jure) insolvent, be allowed to allocate their scarce dollar assets to finance new lending? Should such lending be limited to fresh funds under a separate window? What are the potential benefits of resuming foreign currency lending? Read caretaker Deputy Prime Minister Saade Chami’s thoughts:
