rview:
Since 1975 civil war has seriously damaged Lebanon's economic
infrastructure, cut national output by half, and all but ended Lebanon's
position as a Middle Eastern entrepot and banking hub. Following October
1990, however, a tentative peace has enabled the central government to begin
restoring control in Beirut, collect taxes, and regain access to key port
and government facilities. The battered economy has also been propped up by
a financially sound banking system and resilient small- and medium-scale
manufacturers. Family remittances, banking transactions, manufactured and
farm exports, the narcotics trade, and international emergency aid are main
sources of foreign exchange. In the relatively settled year of 1991,
industrial production, agricultural output, and exports showed substantial
gains. The further rebuilding of the war-ravaged country was delayed in 1992
because of an upturn in political wrangling. Hope for restoring economic
momentum in 1993 rests with the new, business-oriented Prime Minister
HARIRI.
National product:
GDP - exchange rate conversion - $4.8 billion (1991 est.)
National product real growth rate:
NA%
National product per capita:
$1,400 (1991 est.)
Inflation rate (consumer prices):
100% (1992 est.)
Unemployment rate:
35% (1991 est.)
Budget:
revenues $533 million; expenditures $1.3 billion, including capital
expenditures of $NA (1991 est.)
Exports:
$490 million (f.o.b., 1991)
commodities:
agricultural products, chemicals, textiles, precious and semiprecious metals
and jewelry, metals and metal products
partners:
Saudi Arabia 21%, Switzerland 9.5%, Jordan 6%, Kuwait 12%, US 5%
Imports:
$3.7 billion (c.i.f., 1991)
commodities:
Consumer goods, machinery and transport equipment, petroleum products
partners:
Italy 14%, France 12%, US 6%, Turkey 5%, Saudi Arabia 3%
External debt:
$400 million (1992 est.)
Industrial production:
growth rate NA%
Electricity:
1,300,000 kW capacity; 3,413 million kWh produced, 990 kWh per capita (1992)
Industries:
banking, food processing, textiles, cement, oil refining, chemicals,
jewelry, some metal fabricating
Agriculture:
accounts for about one-third of GDP; principal products - citrus fruits,
vegetables, potatoes, olives, tobacco, hemp (hashish), sheep, goats; not
self-sufficient in grain

*Lebanon, Economy

Illicit drugs:
illicit producer of opium, hashish, an