The number of guarantees issued by the government-subsidized program “KAFALAT” plunged by 81.91% on an annual basis to 51 during the first eight months of 2019, down from 282 during that same period last year. The face value of guarantees also narrowed by 84.60% y-o-y to just below LBP 8.39 billion ($5.57 million) up to August 2019, from LBP 54.50 billion ($36.16 million) a year before. In this vein, the average value per guarantee fell by 14.84% on a yearly basis to around LBP 164.60 million ($109.19 thousand), compared to LBP 193.28 million ($128.21 thousand) by August 2018. The agricultural sector amassed the bulk (39.22%) of issued Kafalat loans, followed by the industrial (35.29%) and tourism (19.61%) sectors.

From a geographical standpoint, the Mount Lebanon region continued to outperform other regions in terms of number of issued Kafalat loans, detaining a 49.02% share of the total portfolio, followed, and at quite a distance, by the Bekaa (29.41%), Beirut (7.84%), the North (5.88%), and the Nabatieh & South  regions (3.92% each).