Gaza attacks to throw Lebanon into recession again – World Bank

The attacks in Gaza are expected to push Lebanon’s economy into recession one more time, the World Bank said on Thursday.

Lebanon’s border with Israel has been attacked multiple times since the October 7 attacks.

According to the World Bank”prior to October 2023, economic growth was projected — for the first time since 2018 — to slightly expand in 2023,” by 0.2 percent.

The pre-war increase mainly relied on summer tourism and remittances from the large Lebanese diaspora.

However, the bank added that “the current conflict and its spillovers into Lebanon are expected to quickly reverse the tepid growth projected for 2023, as the economy returns to a recession.”

According to their report, the main factor that will slow the economic growth is a drop in tourism.

They added that more than half of travel reservations to Lebanon have been cancelled for winter holidays.

Real gross domestic product is also expected to fall “to between -0.6 percent to -0.9 percent depending on the extent of the tourism shock,” it added.

The Israeli attacks on Lebanon killed more than 140 people.