The World Bank launched the third issue of the semi-annual Lebanon Economic Monitor. It stresses on “the continuous volatile political situation in the country, the security environment and the spillovers of the Syrian crisis.”
 
The report, ‘A Sluggish Economy in A Highly Volatile Environment’, analyzed the state of the local economy. It included the latest macro-framework forecasts of the banks. The report expects the Syrian conflict to remain weighing on the growth, and linger below the capabilities of the country for the near term. GDP growth in 2014 is projected at 1.5 percent.

The report also highlighted two special focal points. The first point concerns the creation of new coincident and leading indicators for the local economy. Ibrahim Jamali, economist at the World Bank said: “In the first part, the report focuses on providing statistics to understand the GDP growth for now and the future especially that the country has weak figures in this field.”

The second part gave preliminary recommendations for establishing a Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) for the country’s potential oil and gas revenues. It provided an overview of the various types of SWFs that were established across countries. It also drew lessons from these experiences. Jamali said: “Our recommendations will help the state to quickly analyze the subject and focus on how it can transfer these sizeable resources to financial revenue.”  The recommendations also include integration in the budget system, coherence with country investment strategy, and transparency and accountability.