Lebanon

Lebanon: steady but modest growth, 1988–2023

Long a regional banking and services hub, Lebanon suffered one of the worst financial collapses of modern times after 2019, as its banking system failed and the currency lost more than 90% of its value, a crisis compounded by the 2020 Beirut port explosion. Between 1988 and 2023, Lebanon's GDP per capita grew from $959 to $3,478 (current US$), a compound annual growth rate of 3.7% — steady but modest growth. Annual GDP growth averaged 3.5% with a year-to-year standard deviation of 13.3 points, reflecting considerable volatility and periodic crises. Structurally, agriculture's share of the economy moved from 6.5% to 1.0% of GDP (a classic decline as the economy industrialized/modernized), while services rose from 61.9% to 42.4% of GDP, a comparatively unusual pattern for this period. On human development, life expectancy rose from 59.9 to 77.9 years, while tertiary school enrollment moved from 27.4% to 54.4%, while the urban population share grew from 74.5% to 90.7%.

What this growth cost: Growth was not without cost: per-capita CO2 emissions fell from 2.56 to 1.90 tonnes CO2e per person; income inequality (Gini index) widened from 31.8 to 35.5; the poverty headcount ratio increased from 0.1% to 5.8%.