According to Kafalat, the number of loan guarantees dropped from 398 guarantees by August 2017 to 271 loans by August 2018. The overall value of the guarantees also plunged from $47.93M in the same period of 2017 to reach $34.98M by August 2018.
The top three beneficiaries of Kafalat guarantees in the first 8 months of the year were: the agriculture, industry, and tourism sectors, grasping the respective shares of 37.64%, 36.53%, and 19.93%. Even though the agriculture sector took up the largest share of guarantees, the number of loan guarantees to the sector dropped substantially from 171 loans by August 2017 to 102 loans by August 2018. The issued guarantees for each of the tourism and industry sectors also slid from 77 and 131 to 54 and 99, respectively.
Regionally, the largest number of guarantees extended was in Mount Lebanon which grasped 43.17% of total loan guarantees, followed by 18.08% and 12.18% in each of the Bekaa and the North, respectively. The total number of guarantees stood at 117, 49, and 33 in Mount Lebanon, the Bekaa and the North, respectively.
Value & Number of Kafalat Loan Guarantees by August (in $M)
Source: Kafalat