The slowdown in economic activity is taking its toll on new projects as witnessed by the number of guarantees given by Kafalat in the first 2 months of 2015. Kafalat issued 86 guarantees worth $10.48M, compared to 136 guarantees worth $18.47M by February 2014. As a result, the average value per loan went down from $135,800 to $121,806.
Although remaining in the top benefiting sectors from Kafalat, Agriculture (47.67%), Industry (33.72%), and Tourism (9.30%) saw their guarantees decrease from 71, 48, and 11 to 41, 29, and 8 guarantees, by February 2015.
As for the regional breakdown, Mount Lebanon kept grasping the majority of guarantees with a 45.35% share, followed by Bekaa (18.60%) and the South (12.79%). The number of guarantees in these regions decreased from 50, 34 and 14 guarantees to 39, 16 and 11 guarantees, respectively.
In the month of February alone, Kafalat issued 47 guarantees worth $5.34M compared to 65 guarantees worth $7.81M in February 2014. Accordingly, average value per project declined from $120,188 to $113,625.
Sectorial Breakdown of Kafalat Guarantees by February
Source: Kafalat