One out of three Lebanese poverty-stricken: World Bank

WASHINGTON

A third of Lebanese people are impoverished with poverty rates tripling in a decade, the World Bank has said.

One in every three Lebanese "was poverty-stricken in 2022," the World Bank said in a report covering about 60 percent of the country's population.

The institution could not access data from the eastern Hermel region or from parts of the country's south, where Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged cross-border fire for months following the start of the Gaza war.

"Not only has the share of poor Lebanese nationals tripled to 33 percent from a decade ago, but they have also fallen deeper into poverty with the poverty gap rising," the report said.

The poverty rate reached as high as 70 percent in the northern region of Akkar which borders Syria.

The protracted crisis in Lebanon has forced households to cut back "on food consumption and non-food expenses, as well as reducing health expenditures, with likely severe long-term consequences," the report said.

"Food insecurity is on the rise" in Lebanon, the body found, with poor households twice as likely to cut meal portions or the number of meals, borrow food or rely on assistance from friends and family.

The poor were also "nearly four times as likely to have an adult member restrict their food intake to feed their children," the report said.

Also on May 23, a visiting International Monetary Fund delegation warned that the war in Gaza was taking a toll on Lebanon's economy.

"The negative spillovers from the conflict in Gaza and increased fighting at Lebanon's southern border (with Israel) are further exacerbating an already weak economic situation," the IMF said in a statement.