According to Kafalat, the number of granted guarantees dropped from 208 in the first quarter of 2014 (Q1 2014) to 143 in Q1 2015 and their value fell from $26.8M in Q1 2014 to $19.6M in Q1 2015.
In terms of geographic allocation, the highest number of Kafalat guarantees was granted in region of Mount Lebanon, and represented 44.06% of the total number of guarantees. The number of guarantees in the Bekaa represented 18.88% of the total while the number of guarantees granted in the South and the North each constituted 11.89% of the total.
Kafalat loan guarantees given in Mount Lebanon dropped from 80 in Q1 2014 to 63 in Q1 2015, those granted in the Bekaa dropped from 50 in Q1 2014 to 27 in Q1 2015. Likewise, the number of guarantees went down in the South and the North, going from 20 and 25 in Q1 2014 to reach the same number of 17 in each region.
The sectors benefitting from the biggest number of Kafalat guarantees were Agriculture with a 46.15% share in the total, Industry with a 34.97% share, and Tourism with a 9.79% share.
The number of guarantees granted for the agricultural sector declined from 110 in the first three months of 2014 to 66 in the first three months of 2015. Lebanese farmers recently suffered from the closing of the Nassib Border crossing between Jordan and Syria, the main gateway to exporting produce to the GCC market, after Syrian insurgents took it over.
The number of guarantees for the industrial sector also slumped from 75 in Q1 2014 to 50 in Q1 2015 while the number of guarantees for the tourism sector stagnated at 14.
The number of Kafalat guarantees granted in the advanced technology sector remained minor but also fell from 6 in Q1 2014 to 4 in Q1 2015. The only sector to have benefitted from a higher number of Kafalat guarantees was the crafts’ sector with 9 guarantees in Q1 2015 as compared to 3 in the same period last year.
Number of Kafalat Guarantees in Q1
Source: Kafalat