Hariri economics

"Economists in the country believe that the gap between the rich and the poor in Lebanon has widened notably. 'Seventy per cent per cent of the gross domestic product in Lebanon goes to only 30 per cent of the Lebanese,' one economist, Louis Hobeika, told dpa. Fawaz Traboulsi a political science teacher at the Lebanese American University said 'Lebanon has very strong social contrasts.'According to a recent study by the United Nations Development Program, the number of poor in Lebanon increased by at least 5 per cent between 2004 and 2007. More than 30 per cent of the population, or about 1.2 million people, live on just 4 dollars per day, it said. The study said poverty is heavily concentrated among the unemployed and unskilled workers, chiefly from the construction and agriculture sectors, which employ around 38 per cent of all the poor." (thanks Saeed)