Lebanon provides the best trade finance opportunities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, determined a survey recently conducted by The Banker magazine, which ranked the trade potential of 150 countries worldwide. Lebanon’s highly developed banking system was cited as a principle factor behind the country’s impressive ranking in the MENA region.
On a global basis, Lebanon was positioned 26th worldwide in terms of trade finance opportunities, ahead of France, Norway, Greece and Denmark. Lebanon was the only MENA country to rank among the top 30, 18 of which are West European. Switzerland provides the best trade-finance opportunities worldwide, while Belarus presents the worst trade finance potential.
The Banker’s trade finance index was calculated by assigning a weight to four categories—political risk, economic performance, domestic credit provided by the banking sector as a percentage of GDP and exchange rate stability. Trade finance opportunities are best in countries that have stable political infrastructures, economic growth, developed financial systems and stable currencies.
As for other MENA countries’ rankings—Egypt achieved the 35th position worldwide, Tunisia the 36th and Israel the 40th spot worldwide. They were followed by Morocco (41), Iran (59), Jordan (69), Kuwait (71), Syria (83), Saudi Arabia (95), Algeria (99), Bahrain (128), United Arab Emirates (UAE) at the 129th position, Cyprus (130), Qatar (131), Oman (132) and closing the list—Libya, placed 149th. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
