The Central Administration of Statistics (CAS) released its 2018 “Lebanese National Accounts”, shedding light on the evolution of Lebanon’s GDP, as well as its breakdown by sector. In details, the report unveiled that Lebanon’s real GDP contracted by 1.9% in 2018 to LBP 64.16 trillion (i.e. around $42.56 billion), compared to a real growth of 0.9% in 2017. This is the first contraction in real GDP witnessed since 2005. In details, the construction sector contracted by 10%, followed by a 7% drop in the wholesale & retail trade sector, and some 5% slowdown in the education sector, among others. In parallel, the real estate sector (which is the largest constituent of the country’s GDP) grew by 1%, with the public administration sector following suit and expanding by 2%. Other core sectors that witnessed some improvement in 2018 include the electricity (6% growth) and water supply & waste management (6% growth) sectors, the beverages and tobacco industry (6% increase), and the financial services sector (3% expansion).

More on the sectoral front, the real estate sector emerged for yet another consecutive year as the largest contributor to Lebanon’s economy, accounting for 15% of year 2018 GDP, followed by the education, health & other services sector (14%), the commercial trade & motor vehicle repairs sector (13%), and by both the public administration and the mining, manufacturing & utilities sector (11% each) as depicted by the following chart: