Lebanon has a free-market economy and a strong laissez-faire commercial tradition. The Lebanese economy is service-oriented; main growth sectors include banking and tourism. There are no restrictions on foreign exchange or capital movement, and bank secrecy is strictly enforced. There are practically no restrictions on foreign investment.

Services account for 76% of the GDP. Tourism is undergoing through a strong growth phase as a result of huge investments. The information technology (IT) sector is also developing. The manufacturing sector accounts for 18.7% of the GDP. The main industrial activity is building & construction and civil engineering, but other activities such as jewellery and food-processing are also well developed.

Lebanon held the second-biggest gold reserves in the Middle East and Africa after Saudi Arabia. Its long tradition of liberal investment policies, free foreign exchange market, full currency convertibility, free movement of capital and its solid banking system, have made Lebanon an ideal country for conducting business.

Lebanon has the potential for brighter economic prospects over the medium to long term. A stable political environment, structural reform (including improvement in governance) and the recent discovery of significant recoverable offshore gas reserves could move the economy to a sustainable, higher growth path beyond 2016 and help to bring government debt down to more sustainable levels.

Lebanon has potentially significant natural gas resources relative to the size of its economy. Seismic surveys, mainly by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), suggested that the Levant Basin Province has a mean of 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil and a mean of 122 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas. The Levant Basin Province encompasses approximately 83,000 square kilometers of the eastern Mediterranean area off the coasts of Lebanon, Syria, Cyprus, Israel and Palestine. 

Some experts value the gas reserves at $400 billion (equivalent to about 10 times Lebanon’s GDP), but the consensus value is $120 billion. In the first year of gas production, output could increase by double-digit levels. Substantial government revenues from gas exports are expected beyond 2017, which could shift the fiscal deficits to a surplus, significantly narrow the external current account deficits, strengthen economic growth, and bring down the debt-to-GDP ratio to well below 100% of GDP by 2020.

Lebanon has seen an influx of Syrian refugees, now estimated at more than one million , equivalent to 25% of Lebanon’s population. Spillover from Syria will remain a key issue to the government of Lebanon.

Essential Information

Area: 10,452 sq km
Population: 4,131,583 (2012 est.)
Capital: Beirut
Principal Towns: Tripoli, Sidon, Tyre.
Languages: The official language is Arabic although French and English are widely used.
Gross Domestic Product: $41.8 billion (2012 est.)
GDP per capita: $10117 (2012)
International Reserves: $34.7 billion (2012 est.)
Climate: An essentially Mediterranean climate with warm, dry summers and mild, rainy winters. It almost never rains between June and October and there are some 300 days of sun each year.
Currency: $1 = 1,504.00 LBP Lebanese Pound
 
DEMOGRAPHY
Age Distribution (2012 est.)
0-14 years: 22.1%
15-24 years: 17.5%
25-54 years: 42.4%
55-64 years: 8.7%
65 years and over: 9.4%
 
Population Growth
-0.38% (2012 est.)

Education
87.4% of the total population age 15 and over can read and write (2003 est.)
 
NATURAL RESOURCES
Minerals
limestone, iron ore, salt
Water
water-surplus state in a water-deficit region

 Independence Day, 25 November

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Diplomatic representation of Lebanon in Switzerland