Five imperatives the new government will need to tackle to create jobs

ENAR

A second wave of Covid-19 is now battering Lebanon, a country reeling from an unprecedented financial and economic crisis, and still grappling with post-port explosion realities. As a result of these compounded calamities, Lebanon’s economy is likely to end up a fifth smaller by year’s end, as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had estimated it would shrink by 12 percent even before the blast. The unemployment rate might have already reached 40 percent according to some estimates (bizarrely, the government does not publish unemployment data). While some countries battered by the pandemic have sought to shore up their citizens with emergency public spending exceeding 10 percent of GDP, Lebanese officialdom has responded in a manner both lethargic and haphazard. The exodus of the young and able (official emigration data is notoriously unreliable) resulting from the dire situation threatens the country’s long-term economic potential, even if growth can somehow be resurrected.