The Socioeconomic Impact of COVID-19 on Lebanon: A Crisis Within Crises

The COVID-19 crisis comes on the heels of grave economic and political crises that have hit Lebanon at the end of 2019. In contrast to the rather favourable health situation (so far) with a relatively limited number of infections and fatalities, the COVID-19 crisis is expected to have devastating economic costs — both directly and indirectly — given the very fragile economic environment of the country. 

 

Extract :

It is hard to estimate the direct marginal economic impact of COVID-19. Even before the epidemic hits, there were massive business closures in reaction to the economic crisis that has exploded in September 2019. This was already leading to catastrophic increases in unemployment and poverty. Businesses had in a matter of a few months lost access to foreign exchange and to imports, households faced limitations in accessing their bank accounts, and the volume of remittances decreased due to the oil crisis in the Gulf countries...