Moody’s downgrades rating to B3, upgrades outlook to stable.

The credit rating agency Moody's has downgraded the Sovereign long-term issuer ratings to B3 from B2. The agency also changed the outlook from negative to stable.

Moody's said that the principal driver for the ratings downgrade to B3 from B2 was the rise in the debt burden. According to the rating agency's estimates, public debt is likely to reach nearly 140 percent of GDP in 2018.

"The ongoing erosion of Lebanon's very weak government finances will continue to constrai...

Article details

Saradar Bank buys half of Vitas microfinance company. Saradar aims to gain a foothold in the microfinance market

Saradar Bank said it has acquired a 49 percent stake in microfinance company Vitas SAL, a local subsidiary of the US-based Vitas Group. The transaction was valued at around $3.7 million according to a source linked to the transaction. Both Saradar and Vitas refused to confirm this figure.

In a statement, the bank said that the move will allow it to gain a foothold in the promising local microfinance market.

Vitas SAL, which launched its operations 17 years ago, has so far issued o...

Article details

Spread narrows between lira and dollar lending rates. Demand expected to rise for loans in local currency

The spread between the Beirut Reference Rate (BRR) on lending in lira and the BRR on lending in the U.S. dollar has narrowed by 27 percent since January 2016.

The spread is currently at 1.87 percent, as per the rates set by the Association of Banks (ABL) for September 2017.

The margin between the two rates has been slowly decreasing over the period due to the moderate rise in the BRR on lending in dollars. The BRR for lending in liras was fairly stable during the period. The incre...

Article details

Gender gap narrows with age according to ILO survey. Informal employment dominates in all sectors

The gender gap in employment is sizeable in the bracket of 15 to 29 years old, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO) report 'Rising to the Youth Employment Challenge: New Evidence on Key Policy Issues', published earlier this month which covered the youth.

Unemployment rate for males was 6.2 percent and for females 10.5 percent.

The service sector employs 81 percent of males. Industry accounts for 16.5 percent, and agriculture 2.5 percent. Female employment is 9...

Article details

Working hours extended for public sector employees. Saturdays are off from now on

The Ministry of Labor has issued today (Aug 22) a circular which amends the working hours from 32 to 35 hours per week. The decision is effective tomorrow.

Parliament approved extending the working hours of public employees for an additional three hours per week. This is part of the 38 articles forming the salary scale law for civil servants and public employees, which will be published in the Official Gazette this week.

George Aida, General Director of the Ministry of Labor, sai...

Article details