Executive has collected different initiatives recommended to enhance state output and economic performance, with the primary sources being the Lebanese government, multilateral development institutions, and the McKinsey economic vision. The corresponding table reflects the state of the initiatives roughly one year after Lebanon presented its Capital Investment Plan at CEDRE in April 2018. Some progress…
Take initiatives to fix the state
Misplaced trust
Through discussions with Lebanese citizens about the space for free speech in the country, we have found that many Lebanese say they take solace in the belief that despite the government’s failure to provide even the most basic services, they at least are free to say, write, and joke about their predicaments, and criticize those…
Gemmayze 2.0
Beirut’s traditional Gemmayze quarter is witnessing a hospitality renaissance. A quick walk (or a slow drive) down the newly-paved Rue Gouraud and its less populated cousin, the lower and parallel Rue Pasteur, reveals a changing landscape of restaurants and coffee shops, design and art spaces, modern boutiques, and offices—almost all of them new faces, save…
(Not) drowning their sorrows
Although it is commonly believed that in hard times people turn to alcohol to ease or forget their problems, this does not seem to have been the case this past year in Lebanon. Despite all the issues the country has faced, 2018 did not translate into greatly increased sales for the country’s spirit distributors. In…
Seeking climate consensus
The Paris Agreement, adopted in early 2016, aims to reduce the global man-made emissions that are trapping heat in the atmosphere, causing a cascade of extreme weather events due to variations in temperature. The agreement sought to keep the increase in global average temperature well below 2 degrees Celsius, while attempting to limit it to…
The Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum
Energy ministers from Egypt, Cyprus, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority took an important step toward establishing an Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum (EMGF) on January 14, in Cairo. According to the declaration that followed the meeting, the EMGF will, among other things, assist in the creation of a regional gas market, ensure the…
Currency conundrum
Two major topics are keeping economists, politicians, academicians, journalists, and others busy nowadays. The first topic is the real value of the Lebanese lira and if the nominal rate must be de-pegged or moved to a lesser pegged value in order to relieve us from our current monetary, economic, and financial misery. The other topic…
Advocating true wisdom
In Executive’s view of things that happened locally in January 2019, three incidents testified to the presence—and the perils of—irrational expectations. Such expectations actually work in two directions, with different attendant risks: The first direction is that of excessive enthusiasm, very well-known to the economically literate from the last global exposure to “irrational exuberance,” in…
An accumulation of economic woes
Executive met with then-caretaker Minister of Economy Raed Khoury to discuss McKinsey & Company’s economic vision (commissioned by the government in late 2017 and published in early January), the ministry’s progress in regulating private generation of electricity, and the political and economic situation of Lebanon ahead of mid-January’s Arab League Economic and Social Development summit,…
Lebanon’s parliamentary productivity
At first glance, the legislative output of the Lebanese Parliament impresses with its extreme volatility. To full understand the matter of legislative productivity requires a contextual view that takes political environment into account. The election of Michel Aoun as president in October 2016 ended almost two and a half years of vacancy in the post,…
McKinsey’s economic vision emphasizes microscopic details over fundamentals
Lebanon has no difficulty evoking the idea of a circus, or, as we said in the previous issue of this magazine, a political carnival. Our absurdist theater troupe had seemingly perfected its performance of the tragicomedy with the title “Government without Head.” But in January, there were two new and hopeful twists added to the…
An uninspiring economic vision
In January, Lebanon published slides outlining McKinsey’s economic vision—the outcome of a report commissioned by the Ministry of Economy and Trade in late 2017 following government discussions. The 1,274-slide document was developed over the first half of 2018, and outlines an economic vision produced by the consulting firm and owned by the government. If…
Here we go … again
We have a new government and even the most skeptical among us is relieved. Of the 30 ministers, a handful are promising, young, dedicated men and women who have honorable records. It is our hope that these new faces will be able to maintain their untarnished reputations and demonstrate their ability to deliver what is needed in…
E-banking lands in Mar Mikhael
A walk in Mar Mikhael reveals that it has become the hub of hospitality for millennials in Lebanon; during the day, its appealing restaurants and quick snacks attract those who work in the area, while in the evening, it’s a destination for gatherings with friends over drinks or bistro dinners. As such, Banque Libano-Française (BLF)…
McKinsey’s uninspiring economic vision
In January, Lebanon published McKinsey’s economic vision slides that were the result of government discussions in late 2017 on commission by the Ministry of Economy and Trade. The 1,274 slide show document was developed over the first half of 2018, and can be seen as an economic vision outsourced to the consulting firm with ownership…