Bakeries owners, part of the Capitalists group in Lebanon, agreed with the Lebanese minister of economy (who is also an industrial capitalist) to increase the price of bread in a way that fit their benefits.

Lebanese sheep (citizens) will for sure accept everything, shut their mouth, go to all bakeries buy bread with the new pricing, call some radio stations (who’s owners are capitalist) nag a little bit, say that this is unacceptable waste money on the phone call, the radio station will fill their air with those nags and then …. NOTHING WILL CHANGE!!! Sheep will remain sheep, capitalist will keep on making huge profits!!

Public transportation unions postponed for a week a nationwide strike planned for Thursday after “positive” talks with Prime Minister Najib Mikati, but the General Labor Confederation said it would hold a general strike on May 3. The transport unions met with Mikati Tuesday evening.

Lebanon’s Union of Bakeries announced Monday it would hold an open-ended strike from Thursday until the government compensates them for the increased cost of raw materials used in bread production.

Strike … NO Strike, this is the usual story in our country, they announce a strike then after meeting with the official authorities they cancel it, while nothing change and the people get nothing in return, only the leaders of the unions gets some privileges to assure their hidden monopoly on the economic sectors in question.

 This is what used to happen and what is still happening and will keep on happening in the future due to the lack to social mobilization that would really act in a way to get what we (THE PEOPLE 95 % of the population) should get!

Several ministry websites – those of Foreign Affairs, Justice and Energy – are still inaccessible and viewers trying to open the sites are greeted by a message addressed to the government from “Raise Your Voice,” which calls for a popular movement by people to demand their rights.

“We are RYV, short for Raise Your Voice, and we are simply a group of people who could not bear sitting in silence, watching all the crimes and injustice going on in Lebanon. We will not be silenced and brainwashed by your media. We will not stop until the Lebanese people mobilize, demand their rights, and earn them,” part of the message said.

The websites of State Security, ISF, Customs and the Banking Control Commission of Lebanon were also hacked.

“We will not stop until the standards of living are raised to where they should be in Lebanon. We will not stop until this government’s self-made problems are solved, like the power shortage, water shortage, rise in gas prices and rise in food product prices. We are RYV, expect us to break the silence, whether in the streets or on the Internet. Silence is a crime,” the message ends.

The country’s National News Agency was also among state-related websites targeted in the hacking. Visitors to the site are met by a blank screen.

Government websites were not alone in being targeted.

The website of the National News Agency was hacked overnight, as was that of MTV television station. The MTV website remains closed but technicians at the television station have removed the message by “Raise Your Voice.”

Various consumer protection groups have long cast doubt on the veracity of the numbers issued by the Central Administration of Statistics.

According to Consumers Lebanon, prices have increased by more than 5 percent since deliberations over a wage increase started some months ago.

98-octane graded fuel now costs LL36,900 while 95-octane graded fuel costs LL36,200, according to the Energy and Water Ministry’s weekly price update.

Kerosene gas was also up by LL400 and now costs LL30,500. The price of fuel oil and diesel went up as well; both now cost LL31,600.

All prices are per 20 liters.

Last year [the Investment Development Authority in Lebanon] processed more than $93 million in projects although we had a Cabinet crisis, and this year we are negotiating more 50 potential projects that are worth close to $1 billion,” Itani told The Daily Star in an exclusive interview.

Projects undertaken by IDAL in 2011 have created more than 1,800 direct and indirect jobs in the market.

 More on the Daily Star

I don’t want to be negative, but I honestly don’t see any economic advantage or added value concerning this news. The main problem in Lebanon nowadays is the Inflation and the crazy increase in prices while there is no strategy to solve this dilemma and no body is acting on any level to limit at least the growing inflation rate on daily basis!

“The developing world will offer the biggest potential to growth for the global food industry. Both the population and wealth in these regions are growing simultaneously,” he said.

“Each time the GDP per capita grows, the food industry will surely grow as well,” he added.

In the developed world, however, the market for the food industry is different but will still see growth as people continue to demand more advanced, innovative and premium food products.

Nevertheless, Maucher said the industry as well as governments should contribute more toward stabilizing food prices and alleviating global shortages in agricultural goods.

He also believed the world was already facing serious shortages on three extremely important levels. “We are facing three great scarcities now; Water, energy and agriculture,” he pointed out.

While demand for food is growing exponentially, supply is being constrained by resource shortages.

“In other words, no one wants to eat rice all the time anymore. People around the world demand better food and are able to afford it,” he added.

The discrepancy between global demand and supply, according to Maucher, highlights the need for more effective agriculture methods.

“Currently, agriculture consumes 70 percent of the planet’s water resources. This figure could be much lower if efficient methods are adopted,” he said, calling on governments and corporate sectors to work toward introducing modern agriculture systems in developing nations.

He argued that raising food prices was not necessarily good for the industry as it hinders development across developing nations, eventually wreaking havoc on its most vital markets.

“People in the developing world are still spending 50 percent of their income on food. While in developed countries the percentage is 11 percent. Such high percentage [in developing nations] sharply slows down social and economic development,” Maucher added.

More on the Daily Star

The source declined to give any further information about the ongoing talks between MEA and Cyprus Airway.

“MEA is tight lipped about the talks. They will only disclose the details if goes through,” the source said.

Source: The Daily Star
It is very surprising for me to see our Lebanese Airlines company being able to afford buying stakes in another airline company facing troubles. I’m happy for that and hope it would be a transparent deal that would also give the Lebanese economy a positive push.

On the other hand I wish the exclusivity deal between MEA and the Beirut Airport would end by this year and won’t be renewed in a way to let new investor tackle the market and increase competition which will reduce the inflated prices of MEA J

Good Luck MEA

They approved the Salary raises and look what is happening in the markets, all prices are increasing with no control!

What will this Mafia leader “Ghassan Ghosn” do in this regard ?

I think we need an Arab spring against Ghassan Ghosn and his 40 thief around him!

“If the debt continues to rise in the same high tempo then I won’t be surprised if Lebanon experiences the same scenario in Greece, whose economy is in total shambles,” Francois Bassil, Chairman of Byblos Bank, one the three largest banks in the country, told The Daily Star in an exclusive interview Thursday.

Bassil reiterated that Lebanese banks are not willing to lend the government more money if Prime Minister Najib Mikati and his ministers fail to adopt crucial measures to cut the size of the public debt, which has reached alarming levels.

Lebanese banks have been financing most of the public debt since late former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri embarked on a bold drive to rebuild the country.

The Central Bank of Lebanon and local banks hold most of the debt, which is expected to reach $60 billion at the end of 2012 through subscriptions to treasury bills and sovereign eurobonds.

Bassil made it clear that Lebanese banks will roll over the outstanding debts each year, but have no intention or desire to increase their exposure to this debt.

More on The Daily Star 

In other words, if the wage increases are not gradually matched with an equivalent increase in economic productivity, Lebanon could see a rapid acceleration in inflation rates.

Higher inflation would then wipe out the hike’s positive impact on GDP growth, which is otherwise expected from the resulting boost in public and private spending.

Lebanese employees are scheduled to receive their long-awaited salary increases at the end of February, after the official Gazette published the relevant decree last month.

Employees will receive an increase ranging from LL175,000, for those earning the minimum wage, up to LL299,000 for those who earn salaries above LL1.5 million.

“The positive side of the story is that the wage increase will pump some additional $1.6 billion into the economy. This would give a boost to growth across sectors, especially during the first two quarters of the year,” said Nicolas Chammas, the head of Beirut Traders Association.

But at the same time, Chammas added, the raise would risk creating significant inflationary pressure on markets that could struggle to cover a sharp increase in demand.

More on the DailyStar

News Source: AMEInfo

What does this mean ? new investments coming to Lebanon, while we are all seeing the unstable situation in most countries around us. Usually we hear saying the Foreign investments are cowards and they always try not to tackle unstable markets. So why would an Emiratian Group take the risk and come to Lebanon ? 

iThink that Lebanese people should keep their country safe, to benefit from more and more foreign investments and try as much as possible not to interfere in what is happening in other countries! We already paid a lot in the last 50 years, it is time to become stable and safe ! 

The order will cover 6,830 Emirati citizen with limited income whose loans do not exceed Dh1 million.

The order will cover settled cases and those pending a court ruling.

In cases in which rulings have already been issued, the debt will be settled as per the repayment schedule specified by the courts.

More about this news on Gulfnews

Coming 100 days before France’s presidential elections, the ratings cut to AA+ is a blow for President Nicolas Sarkozy. Other countries inEurope were also notified by the ratings company, Baroin said, without being more specific.

“This is not good news, we would have preferred to keep it,” Baroin said on France 2 Television. “It’s a reduction of one level, it’s the same level as the U.S. It’s not a catastrophe.”

A downgrade by S&P signals that the latest pledges by European leaders to clamp down on deficits and step up cooperation won’t be enough to end the region’s debt crisis and curtail the rise in France’s borrowing costs. The country’s benchmark 10-year bonds now yield 130 basis points more than debt of AAA rated Germany.

More On Bloomberg

The reserves were still close to an all-time high when they reached $32.5 billion two months ago and analysts say that the Central Bank can cover nearly 80 percent of the Lebanese currency in the market.
More on DailyStar

I don’t think that this is a positive point for the Lebanese Economy; it might be positive on the level of the Banking sector, but globally what would be the effect of having a high foreign currency reserve? For me I don’t see this might boost the productivity neither it might help the suffering sectors like Industrial nor agriculture as well as it won’t have any effect on the hospitality services sector.

At the end, this is my opinion so that would be yours?

Jose Graziano da Silva, the Brazilian who replaced Senegal’s Jacques Diouf at the helm of the FAO at the start of 2012, said volatility in food markets was likely to continue and that more people would be at risk of hunger due to economic instability.

“Prices will not be going up as in the last two to three years but will also not drop down. There may be some reductions but not so drastic, in the short term,” Graziano da Silva told a news conference in Rome.

“Volatility will remain, that is clear,” he said.

Global food prices measured by the FAO hit a peak last February but have been falling since June as crops have improved and concerns about global economic turmoil have reined in demand growth.

High food prices have helped fuel inflation and contributed to the civil unrest which created the so-called Arab Spring last year.

Graziano da Silva said he did not expect the economic slowdown in Europe to impact funding for FAO projects, because the amount countries donated was such a small proportion of gross domestic product that they were unlikely to cut it.

But he said the slowdown was likely to increase the number of people at risk of hunger in the world, which the organization estimated at 925 million people in 2010.

“We will have more work to do, with more people hungry, more people unemployed, and we will need new ways to assist them,” he said, as he began a term of three and a half years.

More on Reuters 

The price of 98-octane rated gasoline is now priced at LL32,400, increasing by LL200, and the price of the 95-octane rated gasoline now costs LL31,700, also up LL200.

The price of diesel is now LL26,000. Kerosene gas fell by LL400 and now costs LL28,200 and oil fuel decreased by LL300 and now costs LL29,400.

All prices are per 20 liters.
Source: The Daily Star 

Most economic indicators up to the first nine months of this year were extremely negative with the GDP sinking to less than 2 percent, the Lebanese economy’s worst performance for many decades.

Politics, according to most economists and experts interviewed by The Daily Star, was the number one reason behind the decline in tourism, capital inflows, investments, sales and customer bank deposits.

“GDP this year is less than 2 percent, banking growth less than 8 percent, tourism is down by more than 20 percent, capital inflows declined by 20 percent and investments fell by 15 percent. The only thing positive is the stability of the Lebanese pound,” economist Ghazi Wazneh told The Daily Star Tuesday.

Figures provided by the Central Bank show that the balance of payments in the first 10 months of 2011 recorded a deficit of $2.129 billion compared to a surplus of $2.755 billion over the same period last year.

Remittances and capital inflows in the first 10 months of this year fell to $11.2 billion compared to $14 billion in the same period of last year.

The trade deficit in the same reporting period reached $14 billion, although exports saw a small rise this year.

More: The daily Star 

The outcome of a two-day European Union summit left financial markets uncertain whether and when more decisive action would be taken to stem a debt crisis that began in Greece in 2009, spread to Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain and now threatens France and even economic powerhouse Germany.

A new treaty could take three months to negotiate and may require risky referendums in countries such as Ireland.

Two ECB sources told Reuters the European Central Bank would keep purchases of euro zone government bonds capped for now and take no extra firefighting action. Debt markets were wary. Interbank lending rates eased but Italian 10-year bond yields rose to around 6.5 percent.

Twenty-six of the 27 EU leaders agreed to pursue a tougher budget discipline regime with automatic sanctions for deficit sinners in the single currency area, but Britain said it could not accept proposed EU treaty amendments after failing to secure concessions for itself.

“This is a breakthrough to a union of stability,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. “We will use the crisis as a chance for a new beginning.”

More on Reuters 

i don’t know if this try will succeed but when i saw Cameron rejecting the treaty i remembered President Sarkozy telling him :

“We’re sick of you criticizing us”

CEO Thierry Breton of the French information technology company said only 10 percent of the 200 messages employees receive per day are useful and 18 percent is spam.  That’s why he hopes the company can eradicate internal emails in 18 months, forcing the company’s 74,000 employees to communicate with each other via instant messaging and a Facebook-style interface.

Caroline Crouch, a spokeswoman for the company, told ABC News the goal is focused on internal emails rather than external emails with clients and partners. Atos has already reduced the number of internal emails by 20 percent in six months.

When asked how employees have responded to the policy, Crouch told ABC News the overall response “has been positive with strong take up of alternative tools.”

Breton,  the French finance minister from 2005 to 2007, told the Wall Street Journal he has not sent an email in the three years since he became chairman and CEO of Atos in November 2008.

“We are producing data on a massive scale that is fast polluting our working environments and also encroaching into our personal lives,” he said in a statement when first announcing the policy in Feburary. “At [Atos] we are taking action now to reverse this trend, just as organizations took measures to reduce environmental pollution after the industrial revolution.”

Source: ABC News

i Think this is a great approach, emails in many situations are nothing but a waste of time and a huge obstacle for applying an agile environment for production.

These days emails are a new modern sort of bureaucracy ! the alternatives applied instead of emails at Atos are much more efficient and would really make sense and boost productivity!

In an economy facing huge challenges there is NO TIME TO WASTE !