Data Visualization

Blog of the Data Visualization & Communication Course at OSB-AUB

“This is my favorite part about analytics: Taking boring flat data and bringing it to life through visualization” John Tukey

Startups; A Remedy for the Lebanese Economy?

Startups; A Remedy for the Lebanese Economy?

by | May 10, 2021 | Dashboard

Could startups be a remedy to the Lebanese economic situation?

Lebanon has been facing an unparalleled situation for the past 2 years. Since the October uprising in 2019, it has been a steep downhill for the Lebanese Economy. Looking at the country’s GDP, we notice that the Lebanese economy was flourishing prior to 2017. However, since 2018, the GDP annual rate has decreased exponentially to reach a rate of 25%. These trends can also be seen in the Lebanese unemployment rate, where the rate decreased slightly prior to 2017, but then dramatically increased to reach 40% by the end of 2020.

Obama once said, “Small businesses are the backbone of our nation’s economy…”. Therefore, we will be monitoring the effects of new businesses and startups on the unemployment rate and GDP.

Studying the situation in the United Kingdom, for example, we see that as the number of new businesses registered increases, the unemployment rate decreases. Similarly, looking at the effect on GDP, we see that new businesses have a positive influence on the countries GDP. Looking at the global trends of the time to start new businesses, we see that there is a global positive change in trying to decrease the amount of time required for new businesses to get up and running, which doubles down on the importance of new businesses and ventures. However, unlike the global trends, in Lebanon, the time to start a business has been constant at 15 days for the past 12 years.

Now that we have seen that startups decrease unemployment and stimulate GDP growth, and there is a global positive shift to ease starting new businesses, the Lebanese government plan of action should be:

1) Reduce time to have startups active and running
2) Provide easy availability of loans for new businesses
3) Reduce taxes on new businesses

to provide an environment that attracts startups and in turn improve the Lebanese economy.

The Lebanese Food Crisis

The Lebanese Food Crisis

by | Apr 8, 2021 | Dashboard, Visualization

Going into its third year of a severe and continued economic depression, Lebanon is currently facing its hardest downfall which is arguably worse than that faced during the past civil wars. With all what is going around including the absence of a responsible and adequate government, the corruption that exists in all form in the public and private sectors, the COVID-19 pandemic, the Beirut port explosion, and the anti-government protests, Lebanon reached a record-high inflation rate which resulted in a drastic devaluation of the Lebanese Lira.
 
Consequently, this led to an increase of up to 500% in market food prices. In fact, UNESCWA estimates reveal that more than 55% of the country’s population is now trapped in poverty and struggling for bare necessities. What makes it worse is that even the prices of essential products for basic nutritional needs have nearly tripled, and the government is not intervening to control the prices of these products. In an attempt to raise awareness about the tragic situation that most Lebanese families are facing, our team tried to explore the change in the basic products’ prices over the last couple of years across Lebanon.

This blog is part of the graduate programs at the Olayan School of Business at the American University of Beirut

For more information about the MSBA program, visit the below link

MSBA Program