covery was helped by a financially
sound banking system and resilient small- and medium-scale
manufacturers. Family remittances, banking services, manufactured
and farm exports, and international aid provided the main sources of
foreign exchange. Lebanon's economy has made impressive gains since
the launch in 1993 of "Horizon 2000," the government's $20 billion
reconstruction program. Real GDP grew 8% in 1994, 7% in 1995, 4% per
year in 1996 and 1997 but slowed to 2% in 1998, -1% in 1999, and 1%
in 2000. Annual inflation fell during the course of the 1990s from
more than 100% to 0%, and foreign exchange reserves jumped from $1.4
billion to more than $6 billion. Burgeoning capital inflows have
generated foreign payments surpluses, and the Lebanese pound has
remained very stable for the past two years. Lebanon has rebuilt
much of its war-torn physical and financial infrastructure.
Solidere, a $2-billion firm, has managed the reconstruction of
Beirut's central business district; the stock market reopened in
January 1996; and international banks and insurance companies are
returning. The government nonetheless faces serious challenges in
the economic arena. It has funded reconstruction by tapping foreign
exchange reserves and by borrowing heavily - mostly from domestic
banks. The newly re-installed HARIRI government's announced policies
fail to address the ever-increasing budgetary deficits and national
debt burden. The gap between rich and poor has widened in the 1990s,
resulting in grassroots dissatisfaction over the skewed distribution
of the reconstruction's benefits.

GDP: purchasing power parity - $18.2 billion (2000 est.)

GDP - real growth rate: 1% (2000 est.)

GDP - per capita: purchasing power parity - $5,000 (2000 est.)

GDP - composition by sector: agriculture: 12%

industry: 27%

services: 61% (1999 est.)

Population below poverty line: 28% (1999 est.)

Household income or consumption by percentage share: lowest 10%: NA%

highest 10%: NA%

Inflation rate (consumer prices): 0% (2000 est.)

Labor force: 1.3 million (1999 est.)

note: in addition, there are as many as 1 million foreign workers
(1997 est.)

Labor force - by occupation: services NA%, industry NA%, agriculture
NA%

Unemployment rate: 18% (1997 est.)

Budget: revenues: $3.31 billion

expenditures: $5.55 billion, including capital expenditures of $NA
(2000 est.)

Industries: banking; food processing; jewelry; cement; tex