Commerce and Industry in Lebanon not performing well!

In a special feature on factories in Lebanon, Al Akhbar said the waning Lebanese industry is currently facing multiple problems because of government slackness and failure to take immediate protective measures to remedy the situation. While it mentioned the closure of nearly 388 registered factories in the period between 2012 and 2016, namely the only steel manufacturing plant in Salaata which closed as a result of foreign competition and lack of official support, Al Akhbar predicted an imminent shutdown of some 23 factories across the country. On this, the newspaper spoke to LIA chief, Fadi Gemayel who maintained that export figures continue to drop, and appealed to concerned authorities to halt the decline through taking fast effective measures, like for example, subsidizing the costs of shipping, transport and electricity. Likewise, LIA vice president, George Nesrawi, revealed that the worst hit sectors are the food, clothing and leather and tanning industries. To note, that the Cabinet issued a decree on May 21, barring the importation of clothes and food items from Turkey, in order to protect Lebanese industries, but  was rejected by merchants, because of its incompatibility with free economy, resulting in the freezing of the decree (c.f: https://bit.ly/2ulRS1Q) . On the other hand, the BLOM Lebanon Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for June, has shown that the economy at the private sector level has declined in the second quarter of this year, posting 46.0 falling from 46.4 in May, which is considered the steepest contraction since October 2017. (Al Akhbar, July 10, 2018)

 
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