POLITICAL Lebanon is currently in a period of political reconciliation. As of July 2008, the country has been under the rule of President Sulayman. The political situation is relatively stable. ECONOMICAL Real GDP growth for 2008 reached approximately 6%. Due to the global economic recession, Lebanon’s economic growth for 2009 is expected at 2.5%. While the global recession has not directly affected Lebanon, it has still managed to impact the country’s major industries such as tourism, real estate, construction, and finance. Other factors believed to halter growth in 2009 are political uncertainty and slower growth rate in the GCC (which negatively affects the flow of remittances from Lebanese expats). The fiscal account still remains in deficit, and will most likely stay that way until 2010. However, the current account deficit should decline from 13.4 % of GDP in 2008 to 9.7 % of GDP in 2009 thanks to lower import costs. It may increase slightly in 2010 to 11% of GDP Public debt is anticipated to drop from 164% of GDP in 2008 to 145% of GDP in 2010. Consumer price inflation dropped to 4% in 2009 and is expected to drop further to 3.5% in 2010 as result of stabilizing prices of international commodity products. However, certain sectors of the economy, such as banking and capital markets, managed to maintain growth figures. Despite, Lebanon’s economic situation, its Pound is robust. The country still plans to carry on with its privatization program as well as plans to improve the trade balance. Lebanon’s banking industry is believed to be well protected against the global credit crunch as result of high levels of liquidity, a strong deposit base, high capitalization levels, limited exposure to real-estate lending and the strong support of the Central Bank. Additionally, a majority of the banks’ revenues come from lending to the government. Lebanon’s growth rate should recover in 2010 to 3.5%, as a result of increased regional growth. However, private consumption may not fully recover by 2010 due to the negatively effected remittance flows as well as concerns from consumers and lenders over the global recession.