Real Estate Owner plans to cut up and remove five-star hotel from Beirut UAE billionaire Khalaf Al-Habtoor is considering hiring a Chinese company to deconstruct his five-star hotel in Beirut and move it to another country, following a decision in January to end all investment in Lebanon. Al-Habtoor is considering dividing the 185-room Metropolitan Palace Hotel into pieces and shipping the parts by sea out of Lebanon, possibly […] April 29, 2025
Banking & Finance Lebanon passes banking secrecy law Lebanon’s parliament on Thursday passed a new banking secrecy law allowing authorised entities to access records from the last decade, a long-awaited measure demanded by the International Monetary Fund to set the country’s shattered economy on track. It is parliament’s third attempt at amending banking secrecy regulations in Lebanon, after previous versions were considered by […] April 25, 2025
Energy Lebanon receives $250m World Bank loan to ease power problems The World Bank has granted Lebanon a $250 million loan aimed at helping to alleviate persistent power cuts worsened by last year’s war between Israel and Hezbollah, the country’s finance ministry said on Thursday. Even before the conflict, Lebanon had for years been struggling with a severe shortage of imported fuel and poor infrastructure. Following the conflict, however, […] April 24, 2025
Economy Lebanon inflation falls to 14% as exchange rate stabilises Lebanon’s annual inflation rate fell to 14 percent in March, from 70 percent in the same month last year, according to news reports. The primary cause of the drop is the stabilisation of the country’s exchange rate, Arab News reported, citing data from the Central Administration of Statistics in Beirut. The rate has stood at […] April 24, 2025
Opinion Banking & Finance There’s no easy fix for Lebanon’s banking collapse New Central Bank governer Karim Souaid needs all the help he can get April 17, 2025
Retail Dubai Holding-backed retailer Azadea puts IPO on hold Azadea Group, which is backed by an investment company owned by Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, has put its initial public offering on the back burner, it has been reported. Dubai Holding acquired a minority stake in the Beirut-based retailer in 2018, valued at $1 billion. The IPO pause is not down to […] April 15, 2025
Banking & Finance Judge in Lebanon paves way for ex-central bank chief indictment A judge in Lebanon has published a court decision in the embezzlement charges against the country’s former central bank chief, Riad Salameh, paving the way for an indictment. Judge Bilal Halawi published a “presumptive decision” concluding that Salameh, who served as central bank governor for 30 years before his term ended in disgrace in July 2023, had engaged […] April 9, 2025
Banking & Finance Lebanese central bank chief tells banks to merge Lebanon’s new central bank governor pledged to depositors on Friday they would recover their money and told local banks to increase their capital through mergers. Karim Souaid said during a ceremony as he took office that small depositors would be given priority in obtaining their funds and that the central bank and the government would […] April 4, 2025
Analysis Finance After 2 years without a central banker, Souaid divides Lebanon Last Thursday the Lebanese cabinet approved Karim Souaid as the sixth governor of the country’s central bank, Banque du Liban. Souaid, a former investment banker and asset manager, takes up the post after two years in which Lebanon had no formal banking chief and as the country enters a seventh year of economic and political […] April 1, 2025
Banking & Finance IMF says Lebanon needs new strategy to reboot economy Lebanon needs a comprehensive strategy for rebooting its economy in order to access a programme with the International Monetary Fund, with stress on data transparency, the IMF said on Thursday. “First and foremost, what is needed is a comprehensive strategy for economic rehabilitation,” said spokesperson Julie Kozack in a press briefing. She confirmed that the […] March 28, 2025
Finance Lebanon bondholders pick US bank for debt talks Lebanon’s bondholders have hired US investment bank Houlihan Lokey as financial adviser for eventual debt talks, two sources familiar with the situation told Reuters. Lebanon has been engulfed in a severe economic crisis since 2019, when its financial system collapsed under the weight of massive state debts, which prompted a sovereign default in 2020. In […] March 27, 2025
Economy Economy in Lebanon remains severely depressed, IMF says The Lebanese economy remains severely depressed, its condition exacerbated by a two-month war last year between the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah group and Israel, in which infrastructure and homes were destroyed, the International Monetary Fund has said. An IMF team visited the country last week and met the new government led by President Joseph Aoun and […] March 17, 2025
Banking & Finance Lebanon bonds rally to near-5-year high with new government Lebanon’s international bonds rallied more than one cent on Monday, two days after a new government was formed. The country’s dollar-denominated bonds jumped 1.1 cents to being bid at around 18.3 cents across most maturities, the highest level since March 2020, Tradeweb data showed. The latest rise extends a sharp turnaround for the bonds, which have lingered […] February 10, 2025
Banking & Finance Lebanon to refund locked bank deposits Lebanon’s new government and the central bank are devising a plan for commercial banks to pay billions in locked deposits to bank customers. Wasim Al-Mansouri, the central bank’s acting governor, on Tuesday told the Saudi Arabian daily Aleqtisadiah that a solution would not be possible without the presence of an executive authority capable of drawing […] February 5, 2025
LUNCH WITH FRANK KANE Media & Advertising Nayla Tueni: ‘I am a journalist, a journalist, a journalist’ Nayla Tueni is as close as you get in the Middle East to media aristocracy. She is the fourth generation of a family that, for the best part of a century – through wars, assassinations, man-made disasters and economic crises – has kept publishing Annahar, a Lebanese broadsheet described by Time magazine as “the newspaper […] January 31, 2025
Economy Saudi Arabia has ‘great confidence’ in Lebanon’s reforms Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud visited Beirut on Thursday, the first trip to Lebanon by a Saudi foreign minister in 15 years. The visit coincided with early signs of recovery in Lebanon’s economy as it improves relations with Gulf states and others following the election of President Joseph Aoun. After his meeting with Aoun, Bin […] January 24, 2025
Infrastructure Lebanese officials promote revival of rail network Lebanon is promoting the revival of the country’s defunct railway system that could link to neighbouring Syria and Iraq and become part of China’s proposed Belt and Road Initiative in the region. The train transport system in Lebanon had linked the capital Beirut with Tripoli near the Syrian border before it came to a standstill […] January 23, 2025
Opinion Development Lebanon’s journey to renewal starts now Hope and optimism follow the arrival of a new prime minister and president January 20, 2025
Economy Lebanon and Sudan swell Arab countries’ public debt Public debt in Arab countries swelled by nearly $142 billion at the end of 2023, mainly because of a sharp rise in obligations by Lebanon and war-battered Sudan. Total debt increased despite a fall in Egypt’s public, mostly domestic, dues as a result of a large depreciation in the pound against the US dollar. The […] January 20, 2025
Economy Slow restart predicted for GCC aid to Lebanon A resumption of badly needed GCC financial aid to Lebanon may take time, even though most Gulf countries have given their blessing to the new Lebanese president Joseph Aoun, according to observers. The six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council were previously among the biggest aid donors and investors in Lebanon, before they cut assistance as […] January 14, 2025
Economy New Lebanese president faces uphill task on economy Joseph Aoun, the new Lebanese president who was elected on Thursday, faces an uphill task of pulling his country out of the worst financial crisis since independence, according to analysts. After a presidential vacuum of more than two years, the 60-year-old Maronite Christian and former army commander takes over the Baabda presidential palace against the […] January 10, 2025
Economy Lebanon’s bonds rally after new president elected Lebanese government bonds extended their three-month-long rally on Thursday as the crisis-ravaged country’s parliament voted in a new head of state for the first time since 2022. Lebanese lawmakers elected army chief Joseph Aoun as president. It came after 12 failed attempts to pick a president and boosted hopes that the country might finally be able to start addressing […] January 10, 2025
