Lebanon’s banking sector still well-fueled

ENAR

The country’s engine is still running. Despite all the pressures that the Lebanese banking sector faced last year, they still managed to grow their deposit and asset base and extend their lending arm to the country’s private and public sectors. Their profits are not as rosy though. Lebanon’s domestic bank assets recorded annual growth of 8 percent last year to $152 billion, about three and a half times the size of the economy. The growth is slightly below the 9 percent registered in 2011 and falls short of the 14 percent average growth of the past five years, but given the issues that the sector is dealing with — upheaval in neighboring Syria, instability at home and increased international scrutiny, to name a few — this asset growth is welcome news. Deposits flowing into bank coffers also rose 8 percent — in line with the Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh’s