Ominous sentiments

Lebanon’s consumers ended 2013 wearier than ever and harbored little to no optimism about the country’s economic prospects in light of the miserable security situation and political bickering that dominated the year. A report on Lebanon’s Consumer Confidence Index (CCI), produced jointly by the American University of Beirut and Byblos Bank offered a reminder of just how miserable the country was in the second half of 2013. According to a research document detailing index results and analysis published by the Byblos Bank research department on May 8, the CCI averaged 29 points per month in 2013, down 10.7 percent from 2012. Within the year, the index fell precipitously from a year-high of 35.3 in August to 22 points in September, marking the index’s lowest monthly reading since its inception in 2007. Byblos Bank noted that the Q4 2013 confidence readings were more than 70 percent lower than those in each