In the fog
April 11, 2018
Assessing the insurance industry of Lebanon at the current junction of global insurance challenges, regional vagaries, domestic economic hurdles, and the country’s ongoing political issues is not without difficulty. Just as with the national economy, there are hopes and interesting prospects, but they are mainly just over the horizon—whether in the reconstruction of war-torn Syria and Iraq, in the development of an oil industry, or in the infrastructure and investment programs that are being ambitiously pursued by the Lebanese state.
In the best of all possible worlds, where “tout est pour le mieux,” as Voltaire’s Pangloss never tires of assuring us, Lebanese insurance would of course be developing relentlessly, and managers would not ask for their companies to be mentioned editorially in magazines they advertise in. Alas, the world being as it is, and the Lebanese insurance sector not having released new performance numbers for about six months, it is difficult to perceive insurance as a growth industry in Lebanon for the current period.