Economy

Mount Lebanon Land Registry: New Payment Orders Issued
Mount Lebanon Land Registry: New Payment Orders Issued

The General Directorate of the Land Registry announced on Thursday that "the cadastral secretariats in Mount Lebanon will deliver the second batch of payment orders and the third batch of ready title deeds to the parties concerned or their proxies tomorrow, Friday, March 22, 2024, according to a reception mechanism that has already been ...

Consumer Prices Recorded 1.06% Increase in February
Consumer Prices Recorded 1.06% Increase in February

The Central Administration of Statistics (CAS) reported on Thursday that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in Lebanon for February 2024 recorded an increase of 1.06% compared to January 2024. This increase remains moderate compared to the rebounds recorded in other months of 2023 (33.27% in March and 5.35% in May). Additionally, the index rose by ...

Downtown Beirut: A Deserted Land
Downtown Beirut: A Deserted Land

  Poor Downtown Beirut, it does not deserve the fate it has endured for years. And, by a play of mirrors, poor Solidere, which does not deserve it either. The fates of the two are linked. And the current fleeting Ramadan revival will not change this torpor, which is not the result of chance, but rather the culmination of a long macabre ...

USAID: $1.1 Million to Help 11,000 Farmers
USAID: $1.1 Million to Help 11,000 Farmers

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) announced on Wednesday that it had distributed “seeds, seedlings and fertilizers to more than 11,000 small-scale Lebanese farmers across the country.” The donation, totaling $1.1 million, is part of the Lebanon Agriculture and Rural Empowerment (ARE) Activity. It aims to ...

Public Sector Salary Increase Disbursed
Public Sector Salary Increase Disbursed

Sources close to the Ministry of Finance told This Is Beirut on Wednesday that the funds allocated for retroactive pay raises for December and January, which were approved by the Council of Ministers on February 28, have been transferred to civil servants, military personnel and pensioners. These individuals will be able to withdraw the funds ...

Minimum Wage Increase: A Bottomless Pit
Minimum Wage Increase: A Bottomless Pit

As long as minimum wage growth lags behind the inflation rate, salary adjustment measures remain an aberration and a futile economic absurdity. Much like a bottomless pit. Which pertinent indicator did the Price Index Committee use to support the increase in the minimum wage to LBP 18 million, while simultaneously allowing employers to decide the ...

A Promising Holiday Season
A Promising Holiday Season

  Despite the looming threat of war, the 2024 tourist season is off to a promising start. With a string of holiday weekends including Catholic and Orthodox Easter, Eid al-Fitr and Labor Day, the current month bodes well for the tourism sector. The signs are quite encouraging! Against all odds, Lebanese citizens abroad continue to flock back ...

Minimum Wage Set at LBP 18 Million
Minimum Wage Set at LBP 18 Million

The Price Index Committee, which met on Tuesday under the chairmanship of caretaker Minister of Labor Moustafa Bayram, approved an increase in the minimum wage in the private sector and a one hundred percent increase in school allowances. It was thus agreed to increase the minimum wage from LBP 9 to 18 million, which will be fully declared to ...

Lebanon Third Most Miserable Country in the World
Lebanon Third Most Miserable Country in the World

Lebanon rises to third place in the list of countries with the most miserable economy according to the 2023 Misery Index (HAMI) by Hanke, with a score of 266.1. Lebanon follows Argentina and Venezuela and precedes Syria, which ranks fourth. The HAMI uses readily available economic data to determine how "miserable" or "healthy" an economy is. The ...

Achieving Stability in the LBP-Dollar Exchange Rate?
Achieving Stability in the LBP-Dollar Exchange Rate?

For nearly one year now, the Central Bank of Lebanon (BDL) has withdrawn around 32% of the Lebanese pound's circulating supply from the market. This action has successfully stabilized the black-market dollar exchange rate at approximately 89,500 Lebanese pounds to the dollar, an action that has also triggered a simultaneous increase in interbank ...

Salary Raise: And Then What?
Salary Raise: And Then What?

  The need for salary increases in the private sector is more than justified, especially given the skyrocketing triple-digit inflation and the 2024 Finance Law, which has seen taxes and levies multiplied tenfold to fortyfold. The concertation between economic organisms and the General Confederation of Lebanese Workers regarding a potential ...

Stamp Black Market Thriving More than Ever
Stamp Black Market Thriving More than Ever

The stamp black market thrives openly, with prices soaring to somehow astronomical heights, even within ministries, occasionally. The crux lies in the necessity of affixing the fiscal stamp to almost all accounting formalities, under applicable laws. In the “digital age,” the ordinary taxpayer rightfully wonders why the Ministry of Finance, ...