5/23/2024–|Last updated: 5/24/202412:07 AM (Mecca time)
The World Bank reported that the poverty rate in Lebanon has increased three-fold in a decade to include one in every three Lebanese, while the country has faced a severe economic crisis since 2019 and an escalation in the south.
The bank issued a report – today, Thursday – on poverty in Lebanon, based on a survey that included 60% of the population in the governorates of Akkar, Beirut, the Bekaa, northern Lebanon, and most of Mount Lebanon.
The report revealed “a significant increase in the monetary poverty rate from 12% in 2012 to 44% in 2022 in the areas covered by the survey.”
The World Bank was unable to reach the Hermel region in the east and parts of the south of the country, where Hezbollah and Israel have been exchanging fire and bombing for more than 7 months, against the backdrop of the escalating conflict as a result of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.
The report pointed out that there is a “disparity in the distribution of poverty in Lebanon” between the remote areas and Beirut. The poverty rate reached “70% in Akkar, where most of the population works in the agricultural and construction sectors.”
According to the report, the economic crisis forced “households to adopt a variety of coping strategies, including reducing food consumption and non-food expenditures, as well as reducing health expenditures, with potentially serious long-term consequences.”
Regional Director of the World Bank’s Middle East Department, Jean-Christophe Carré, said that the report highlights “the need to improve targeting of the poor and expand the coverage and depth of social assistance programs to ensure that families in need have access to basic resources, especially food, health care, and education.”
Lebanon is suffering from a political crisis and divisions that are paralyzing institutions and preventing the election of a president since 2022.
The authorities say that the crisis escalated due to the presence of about two million Syrian refugees who fled the war in their country to Lebanon, which is the largest number of refugees relative to the population in the world.
The report also concludes that “Syrian families have been severely affected by the crisis,” as “about 9 out of every 10 Syrians will live below the poverty line in 2022” in Lebanon.
The economic situation worsened
This comes as the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday that the “negative repercussions” of the war in the Gaza Strip and the fighting on Lebanon’s southern border led to “exacerbating the already weak economic situation” in the country.
The IMF said – in a closing statement on its officials’ visit to Lebanon – that the fighting in the south of the country resulted in “the internal displacement of a large number of people, and also caused damage to infrastructure, agriculture, and trade in southern Lebanon, in addition to a decline in tourism.”
At the same time, the IMF considered that “political measures fall short of what is required to enable recovery from the crisis,” while “unemployment and poverty have reached exceptionally high levels.”
In April 2022, the International Monetary Fund announced an initial agreement with Lebanon on an aid plan worth $3 billion over a period of 4 years, but the implementation of the plan is linked to the government’s commitment to implement prior reforms, the majority of which have not yet been implemented.
Since the Lebanese economy began to collapse in 2019, its currency has lost about 95% of its value, banks have prevented most depositors from withdrawing their savings, and more than 80% of the population has fallen below the poverty line.
The government estimates total losses in the financial system at more than $70 billion, most of which are central bank benefits.
