Lebanon may record second highest inflation rate globally in 2022: Fitch

Lebanon may record second highest inflation rate globally in 2022: Fitch

BEIRUT: Lebanon is expected to post the second-highest inflation rate in the world this year, trailing only Sudan, according to Fitch Solutions. Inflation in the country, which faces its worst economic crisis in more than three decades, will average 178 per cent in 2022, up from about 155 per cent last year, Fitch said. This is an upward revision from Fitch’s previous forecast of about 156 per cent for this year due to stronger inflationary pressures from the adjustment of telecommunications, port and customs tariffs, it said.

Inflation in the country will drop to 60 per cent in 2023 as the effects from the removal of subsidies will fade, Fitch said. Runaway inflation in Lebanon rose to 210 per cent in June from the same month a year earlier, marking the 24th consecutive triple-digit increase of the Central Administration of Statistics’ Consumer Price Index since July 2020. The index increased 9.23 per cent from May 2022.

While Inflation in the country continues unabated, it remains far from its peak of 741 per cent towards the end of 1987, during the civil war in the country from 1975 to 1990. Inflation will be fuelled by high global commodities and oil prices, the continued depreciation