By Invitation:
Mr Azhari is an independent researcher. The views expressed in the spotlight are his and do not necessarily reflect the views of BLOMINVEST Bank.
There are few things in economics that the Lebanese agree on, but one thing that seems to attract consensus from all is the sorry state of the energy sector; and, by extension, the wasteful, corrupt spending that surrounded this sector and that constituted a big part of the national debt. That is because the sector – and primarily EDL – absorbed expenditures close to $40 billion if one takes into account compound interest, but it has very little to show for it. In fact, today the state of the sector is so miserable that households get at most 2 hours of electricity a day and have to rely instead on the high-cost source of private generators. This implies that a lot poor households that can’t afford private generators are left out with hardly any electricity each day, thus worsening their already painful living conditions. As a result, and to a large extent, the energy crisis has turned into a human crisis.
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