BEIRUT: International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts Lebanon’s economy to accelerate from one per cent growth in 2014 to 2.5 percent in 2015.
Strengthens, Remains Uneven,” the IMF forecasted Lebanon’s value of GDP at $54.7 billion, up from $49.9bn in 2014 and $47.6bn in 2013.
The IMF focused on the implications of lower oil prices on consumption, the size of the Lebanese government spending and the cost of production by private companies.
With the Lebanese population estimated at 4.6 million people, the GDP per capita increased to $12,006 in 2015 from $11,068 in 2014 and $10,655 in 2013.
The fund believes that the Lebanese economy is not running at full production and human capacities, attributing the improvement in economic growth to the drop in oil prices, which will shrink the Lebanese companies’ cost of production and the Lebanese cost of consumption, leading the country to consume more.
In a survey conducted by the Arab Investment & Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (Dhaman), which measures the per capita share of the economy in 18 Arab countries, the Lebanese individual came in the group of Arab countries with high annual individual income ranges between $9,000 and $45,000.
The first group, which includes countries with very high-income – over $45,000 – comprises three Arab countries, namely Qatar, the UAE and Kuwait.
Then there is the high-income group, with income ranges starting from $9,000 and going up to $45,000 per year, which includes the Sultanate of Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Libya.
The middle-income group includes countries with income between $3,000 and $9,000. There are six countries in this group: Iraq, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and Jordan.
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