Default on the horizon?

"People are killing each other to steal LL100,000 or LL200,000,” says Mohamad Choucair, president of Lebanon’s Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture. “That’s how bad the situation is.” While perhaps infused with a pinch of hyperbole, his sentiments are echoed by Nicolas Chammas of the Beirut Traders Association, who says the current situation in the country “is extremely painful and no one would have imagined the extent of the economic chaos due to the situation in Syria”. Indeed, Byblos Bank’s consumer confidence index, initiated in July 2007, has reached its lowest point ever, following a summer season in which Lebanese watched kidnappings and roadblocks scare away tourists and hack away at security, economic growth and employment. Deposits drop, lending up With economic growth shriveling for the second year in a row, Lebanon’s corporate and consumer debt becomes all the more worrisome, with the latter group swallowing an increasingly larger slice