Lebanon’s 2012 economic indicator: The gender gap prevails and women face additional obstacles in the business sector || Newspapers (Arabic)

As Safir newspaper published a report by the World Economic Forum  on Lebanon’s economic indicators for 2012 which recorded a visible decline compared to last year especially in terms of a widening gender gap as Lebanon has lost 4 ranks and declined from 118 in 2011 (0.6083) to 122 (0.6030) in 2011.  According to the report, the increasing gender gap is mostly attributed to inequality in salary levels and women’s limited political participation. The report also referred to a study by “Moody's Investors Service” which noted that Lebanese banks are facing a challenge in motivating lending both locally and regionally.

On a related vein, the statistics released by the Central Administration for Statistics indicated an increase of 10.3% in the level of prices of basic goods which rose from 116.3 points in September 2011 to 128.2 points in September 2012.  This increase is largely attributed to the increase in the prices of food items, non-alcoholic beverages, water, gas, electricity as well as rents, which had a negative effect on the production costs of small women entrepreneurs such as rural women cooperatives involved in crafts and agro-processing.

Source: Assafir 6 November 2012