GDP in constant USD has declined at an alarming rate: -1.7% in 2018, -7.1 % in 2019 and -22% in 2020. While the last year has been particularly dreadful in terms of economic stability, the country has not recorded economic growth since 2017. Lebanon’s current financial crisis is almost unprecedented in its severity. In this post, we look at the continuing toll of Lebanon’s economic crisis, how impacts from the Russia-Ukraine conflict are further compounding food insecurity, and some potential policy responses. Now, the war in Ukraine is almost certainly driving that figure higher. 41% at the end of 2020, according to the World Food Program (WFP). As a result of these multiple crises, 61% of people in Lebanon reported challenges in accessing food and other basic needs at the end of 2021, vs. In addition to killing more than 200 and injuring 7,000, the explosion destroyed businesses and the port infrastructure, including immense wheat silos. Then came the economic stagnation of the COVID-19 pandemic, and then the devastating double explosion at the port of Beirut on Aug. Starting in 2019, the collapse of the immense Ponzi scheme at the heart of Lebanon’s banking sector led to the steady decline of the Lebanese lira 1. From 2011 onward, the Syrian civil war sent 1.5 million refugees across the border. Over the past decade, the country of 6.8 million has seen one crisis after another. But in the region, Lebanon-already in the midst of one of the world’s worst economic collapses since the 1850s-is uniquely vulnerable to food security impacts from the Russia-Ukraine conflict.Ī recent World Bank report calls Lebanon’s current crisis “The Great Denial”-referring to an ongoing breakdown of government services, civil society, and the economy. High food prices and supply disruptions triggered by the Ukraine war are hitting Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries like Egypt, Sudan, and Yemen hard, partly due their heavy dependence on wheat imports.
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