Banking Talk

“The global picture is gloomy and the regional picture is not clear. Oil prices are still maintained but if the crisis persists there will not be enough global demand for oil. Syria is another question mark, and because of its historical and political ties to Lebanon there will be an impact on the local scene, whatever the outcome will be. These unclear issues lead me to believe that prospects for 2012 won’t be much better than 2011.” Bank Audi: Freddie Baz, CFO “Lebanon cannot afford a crisis. You have seen what happened to Greece. Greece being a European country, having a strong currency, not having political or security problems, saw interest rates at 40 percent and was on the brink of defaulting, despite all the backing it had from very strong countries and the IMF (International Monetary Fund). Lebanon doesn’t have these advantages so we have to work on building