Riad Salameh

With Lebanon’s bank deposits representing four times the country’s gross domestic product, Executive sat down with Riad Salameh, the governor of Banque du Liban, Lebanon’s central bank, to find out which way Lebanon’s backbone will be leaning next. Lending to the real estate sector is expanding. Is this trend threatening to create a bubble? We constantly run surveys on the relationship between credit and the real estate sector. Our surveys are showing that we have no bubble; [the growth] is based on real demand because the activity in real estate has not been fueled by credit from the banks. The total credit to the whole construction sector represents around 18 percent of the total loans of the country. If you want to take it as a percentage of the total balance sheets of the banks, it doesn’t go over 15 percent. Housing loans represent around 8 percent of the total