A growing number of Lebanese and refugees is increasingly vulnerable and destitute. Hours after the blast, EU Civil Protection teams and supplies arrived in Beirut while the EU also maintained its humanitarian aid in the country. Lebanese and refugees are increasingly struggling to buy food, pay rent and access health care, with high inflation and stark currency devaluation worsening the situation.
The Beirut blast left people dead and over 7, injured. Unfavourable to integration, Lebanon has not wanted to establish formal camps for Syrian refugees. This has forced many families into inferior accommodation, exposed to harsh weather conditions. Beirut, June 1, — Lebanon is enduring a severe and prolonged economic depression. According to the latest World Bank Lebanon Economic Monitor LEM released today, the economic and financial crisis is likely to rank in the top 10, possibly top 3, most severe crises episodes globally since the mid-nineteenth century.
In the face of colossal challenges, continuous policy inaction and the absence of a fully functioning executive authority threaten already dire socio-economic conditions and a fragile social peace with no clear turning point in the horizon.
For over a year and a half, Lebanon has been facing compounded challenges: its largest peace-time economic and financial crisis, COVID and the Port of Beirut explosion. The inadequacy is less due to knowledge gaps and quality advice and more the result of: i a lack of political consensus over effective policy initiatives; and ii political consensus in defense of a bankrupt economic system, which benefited a few for so long.
The increasingly dire socio-economic conditions risk systemic national failings with regional and potentially global effects. Such a brutal contraction is usually associated with conflicts or wars.
Monetary and financial conditions remain highly volatile; within the context of a multiple exchange rate system, the World Bank average exchange rate depreciated by percent in The effect on prices have resulted in surging inflation, averaging Subject to extraordinarily high uncertainty, real GDP is projected to contract by a further 9.
Conditions in the financial sector continue to deteriorate, while a consensus among key stakeholders on the burden-sharing of losses has proved elusive. More than half the population is likely below the national poverty line, with the bulk of the labor force -paid in Lira- suffering from plummeting purchasing power.
With the unemployment rate on the rise, an increasing share of households is facing difficulty in accessing basic services, including health care. The LEM Spring also highlights in its Special Foci section two potential economic triggers that are under increased scrutiny, and which can have significant social implications. However, these would still be temporary, suboptimal solutions.
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