According to Kafalat, the number of issued loan guarantees stood at 39 guarantees in January 2018, compared to 47 guarantees in January 2017. The overall value of the guarantees also contracted from $5.34M issued in the first month of 2017, to $4.66M worth of guarantees issued in January 2018.
The top three beneficiaries of Kafalat guarantees in the beginning of the year were the industrial, agricultural, and tourism sectors, as each grasped 48.72%, 43.59%, and 5.13%, respectively of total guarantees. It is interesting to note that the number of loan guarantees to the sector which took up the largest share of loans this year rose from 12 in January 2017 to 19 in Jan. 2018. Meanwhile, the issued guarantees for each of the sectors of agriculture and tourism slipped from 20 and 11 in January 2017 to 17 and 2 guarantees, respectively, over the same period this year.
Moreover, the geographical allocation of Kafalat loans in the beginning of 2018 revealed that the biggest beneficiary of guarantees was the region of Mount Lebanon, where 21 loan guarantees were issued in January 2018 compared to 26 back in January 2017. The Bekaa and Nabatieh regions respectively benefited from 6 and 4 guarantees in January 2018, down from 9 and 3 loans in January 2017.
Value of Kafalat Guarantees Issued in January (in $M)
Source: Kafalat