The World Bank released its Macro Poverty Outlook report in which it estimated Lebanon’s economic growth at negative 5.4% in 2022 following a contraction of 7.0% in 2021 as the country’s policymakers are yet to agree on a plan to tackle the collapse in Lebanon’s economic model. The World Bank added that the exchange rate continued its downward trend in 2021 leading to triple digit inflation rates which resulted in the depletion of the country’s gross foreign reserves. The World Bank stated that for almost three years, Lebanon has been suffering from an economic and financial crisis which would most likely rank amongst the worst global crises since the year 1857, with GDP freefalling from circa $52 billion in 2019 to an estimated $23.1 billion in 2021. According to the World Bank, the bulk of the burden of the crisis is being borne by the poor, stating in this context that while 53% and 16% of residents in Lebanon were multidimensionally and extremely poor before the crisis on a respective basis, said figures have certainly worsened nowadays. Always in the same vein, the report pointed out that GDP per capita has dropped by 36.5% between the years 2019 and 2021, prompting the World Bank in July 2022 to demote Lebanon from the upper middle-income status to the lower middle-income status. The unemployment rate has also risen by 11.4% to attain 29.6% in 2022. The report also commented that Lebanon has suffered from a collapse of basic services owing to the depletion of FX reserves (down by $20 billion since the start of the crisis). In details, the shortages of fuel have led to electricity blackouts all over the country, with EDL supplying as little as 2 hours of electricity per day, with access to healthcare and clean water also hampered. Always in the same vein, the shortage in fuel also disrupted the food supply and telecom sectors. From another perspective, the World Bank stated that despite the economic contraction in 2021, the tourism sector witnessed a sizeable growth, with tourist arrivals rising by 132% in 2021 while noting that the 2020 figures have been negatively affected by COVID-19. In parallel, the report highlighted that public finances have also improved in 2021 with spending contracting at a much faster pace than revenues. In details, government revenues fell from 13.3% of GDP in 2020 to 6.6% in 2021 (one of the lowest globally), with expenditures shrinking by 10.9 percentage points to 5.9% of GDP in 2021. This led to a fiscal surplus (for the first time in decades) of 0.7% of GDP in 2021, compared to a fiscal deficit of 3.3% of GDP in 2020. The report commented that the World Bank Average Exchange Rate depreciated by 219% in 2021, compared to a 137% depreciation in 2020. The report mentioned that despite BDL’s large FX interventions that began in December 2021 the average black market exchange rate depreciated to around LBP 20,700 per USD during H2-2021. With regards to inflation, the World Bank estimated the average change in the consumer price index at 150% in 2021 before attaining 240% y-o-y in Jan 2022 (due to the depreciation of the rate) and 332% y-o-y in June (due to the ramifications of the Russian war on Ukraine). In addition, the World Bank expected inflation to average 186% in 2022, one of the highest in the world, mainly on the back of the depreciation of the local currency. The World Bank also commented that little progress has been made on reform implementation since the signing of the conditional IMF $3 billion facility in April. Finally, the report stated that the prevailing political impasse along with a potentially looming presidential void could further hamper reform implementation, yield further negative outcomes on the economy.