You’d anticipate luxurious items imports to lower dramatically when an financial disaster hit a rustic adopted by a dramatic foreign money collapse, however that doesn’t seem like the case in Lebanon the place caviar imports, as highlighted by Jad Chaaban in his newest publish, dropped considerably in 2019 however then elevated dramatically from 0.5 in 2020 and 2021 to three.2 tons in 2022. Automobiles imports additionally witnessed a serious enhance final 12 months and even surpassed the 2018 quantity, whereas meats imports dropped barely between 2019 and 2020 earlier than growing as soon as once more.
Why aren’t we taxing luxurious items increased? How can one clarify these numbers when 92% of the Lebanese inhabitants made lower than 400$ a month in 2021? Two phrases: Shadow financial system, which now accounts to roughly 40% of Lebanon’s GDP.
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