Lebanese expatriates send back about $7.5 billion to $8bn in remittances to their home country every year, an official says.Almost 85 per cent of these transfers come from a large Lebanese community in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, says the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of Beirut and Mount Lebanon, Muhammad Shuqair.
In remarks to the Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), Shuqair says there are 500,000 Lebanese working in Gulf countries, adding that the remittances those expats send home are a major underpinning of the national economy.
However, Shuqair notes that the private sector in his country was hit hard by political instability at home and turmoil in the region, saying the national exports, as well as the tourism and real estate sectors are the most hit by the crisis.
He indicates that more than 50 per cent of Lebanese exports travel to GCC countries, meaning the country’s economy is heavily dependent on trade exchange with the six-nation grouping.
Shuqair also says his country’s economic deterioration in 2015 is largely driven by lower value of foreign investments by foreigners and GCC investors.
The value of accumulated investments by GCC nationals in Lebanon is more than $11bn, comprising 97 per cent of the total value of Arab investments in the western Asian Arab country.
($1 = AED3.67, at the time of publishing)
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