According to Kafalat, the number of loan guarantees dropped from 277 guarantees by August 2018 to 47 loans by August 2019. In turn, the total value of issued loan guarantees fell to $5.2M, down from $35.9M in the first eight months of 2018.
Most of the Kafalat guarantees were granted to the Agricultural sector, followed by the Industrial and Tourism sectors in the first 8 months of 2019. As such, these respectively grasped stakes of 38.3%, 34%, and 21.3% of the total guarantees over the period. However, it is worthy to note that the number of loan guarantees to these 3 largest recipients, namely the agricultural, industrial and tourism sectors decreased from 103, 102, and 56 issued guarantees by Aug.2018 to 18, 16, and 10 loan guarantees by August this year.
On a regional level, Mount Lebanon grabbed the largest number of Kafalat guarantees amounting to 48.9% of total loan guarantees, followed by 29.8% and 8.5% in the Bekaa and Beirut, respectively. Nonetheless, the regional allocation of guarantees per region retreated from 121, 49, and 24 in Mount Lebanon, the Bekaa and Beirut by Aug.2018 to 23, 14, and 4 guarantees by August 2019, respectively.
Value of Kafalat Guarantees Issued by August (in $M)
Source: Kafalat