According to Kafalat, the number of issued loan guarantees stood at 113 guarantees in the first quarter of 2018 (Q1), compared to 147 guarantees issued in the same quarter last year. The overall value of the guarantees also contracted from $18.46M in the first three months of 2017 to $14.95M in Q1 2018.
In fact, the top three beneficiaries of Kafalat guarantees by March 2018 were the agricultural, industrial, and tourism sectors, as each grasped 38.94%, 38.05%, and 17.70%, respectively of total guarantees.
However, compared to last year, the number of Kafalat guarantees for the agricultural sector fell from 60 by March 2017 to 44 by March 2018, while the number of guarantees for the industrial and tourism sectors also declined from 49 and 26 in the first three months of 2017 to 43 and 20 in the first three months of 2018, respectively.
Moreover, the geographical allocation of Kafalat loans in Q1 of 2018 revealed that the region receiving the largest number of guarantees was Mount Lebanon which a share of 46.02% of total guarantees, followed by shares of 17.70% for the Bekaa region and 9.73% for each of Beirut and Nabatieh regions.
In the region of Mount Lebanon, the number of guarantees slipped from 68 in Q1 2017 to 52 in Q1 2018 while the guarantees granted in the Bekaa region also dropped from 33 to 20 over the same period. Only one additional guarantee was issued in Nabatieh and Beirut, bringing the total number to 11 in each region.
Value and Number of Kafalat Guarantees Issued in Q1 over 5 years
Source: Kafalat