IMF Expects Lebanon's Economy To Grow 7% In 2009 - Report

BEIRUT (Zawya Dow Jones)--Lebanon's economic growth could reach 7% in 2009, according the International Monetary Fund, if lending remains at the current pace, Lebanon's official National News Agency, or NNA, reports Thursday citing Lebanese central bank Governor Riad Salameh.

Salameh was quoting an IMF delegation visiting Lebanon, the news agency says.

Last month, the IMF said it had revised its recent conservative projection of 4% growth for the Lebanese economy in 2009, adding that it expected the economy to grow substantially faster than this, while Salameh and the Lebanese finance minister had predicted 6% growth.

Lebanon has recorded an unprecedented accumulated surplus in its balance of payments of more than $3 billion during the first seven months of 2009, NMA cites Salameh as saying.

The dollarization rate - the ratio of deposits denominated in foreign currencies, mainly the dollar, to total deposits - has reached 67% and the dollar is in constant offer on a daily basis, Salameh said. He added that this is a sign of a growing confidence in the country's monetary position.

The dollarization rate escalated in Lebanon during the civil war that devastated the country in the last quarter of the 20th century. It was 77.34% at the end of 2007 then it fell to 69.6% at the end of 2008 and to 67.5% at the end of April 2009.

The Lebanese banking system, which has a conservative lending policy, had little exposure to the fallout of the global financial crisis.

News agency Web site: www.nna-leb.gov.lb

-By Shikrallah Nakhoul, Zawya Dow Jones; +961 1 985757; shikrallah@zawya.com


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