Search Site

Trends banner

Oracle shares up 35%

Huge AI contracts lead to the surge.

ADCB to raise $1.66bn

The rights issue aimed at boosting growth.

EGA H1 revenue $4.11bn

Net profit before GAC $445 million.

Borouge to pay $660m H1 dividend

Its net profit for H1 was $474 million.

TAQA secures $2.31bn loan

It will be utilized in a phased manner.

Lebanon economic losses top $5 billion in year of clashes: World Bank

An excavator clears rubble and debris at the site of an overnight Israeli air strike on town of Sarafand, between Sidon and Tyre in southern Lebanon, on October 30, 2024. (AFP)
  • The losses are "largely concentrated in the commerce and tourism and hospitality sectors... as well as in the agriculture sector", the Bank said in a report.
  • "The final cost of damage and losses for Lebanon associated with the conflict is expected to significantly exceed those presented in this assessment," the report said.

Beirut, Lebanon — More than a year of clashes that recently escalated into war have cost Lebanon more than $5 billion in economic losses and damaged nearly 100,000 homes, the World Bank said on Thursday.

Since September 23, Israel has ramped up its air campaign in Lebanon, later sending in ground troops following almost a year of limited, cross-border exchanges initiated by Hezbollah over the Gaza war.

The World Bank report provided estimates for damage between October 8, 2023, and October 27, 2024, saying “the conflict has caused $5.1 billion in economic losses”, with damage to physical structures amounting to “at least $3.4 billion” on top of that.

The losses are “largely concentrated in the commerce and tourism and hospitality sectors… as well as in the agriculture sector”, the report said.

“The final cost of damage and losses for Lebanon associated with the conflict is expected to significantly exceed those presented in this assessment,” the report said.

The conflict has also “damaged an estimated 99,209 housing units” — mainly in Lebanon’s war-torn south near the border with Israel — totalling $2.8 billion in damages, it said.

Eighty-one percent of damaged and destroyed houses are located in the Tyre, Nabatiyeh, Saida, Bint Jbeil and Marjayoun districts.

The World Bank estimates that the conflict cut Lebanon’s real GDP growth for 2024 by at least 6.6 percent.

Lebanon had already been reeling since 2019 from an intense economic crisis that pushed most of the population into poverty.

“This compounds five years of sustained sharp economic contraction in Lebanon that has exceeded 34 percent of real GDP, losing the equivalent of 15 years of economic growth,” the World Bank said.