Lebanon vs. Egypt
Economies of Emerging Nations
Dr. Yiheyis | Clark Atlanta University

Submitted By: Quincy Williams
December 2,2014

Lebanon vs. Egypt
In this paper I will compare and contrast the countries of Egypt and Lebanon. I will explore both of the country’s economic history starting in 1980. The basis of this paper will be on the country’s global development indicators and what they tell us about that particular country. The majority of the research done in this paper was done through the world-bank website as well as the economy watch website.

First I would like to provide some background on Lebanon. Lebanon is a Middle Eastern country in the west of the Asian continent that shares its borders with Syria, Israel and Mediterranean Sea. Most of Lebanon’s land is mountainous. However, the Beqaa valley, with its fertile soil, remains the source for agricultural products. Lebanon has an area of 10,452 square km and population of 4,224,000. The Lebanese economy is noted for its resilience, having withstood wars and invasions with Israel as well as internal sectarian clashes and at times dominating influence from Syria. It is this resilience that helped Lebanon achieve 9% growth during the Great Financial Crisis. The growth was nurtured by controlled banking regulations that restricted credit and therefore, its impact during the recession. As of 2011, the World Bank classified the middle class in Lebanon as those people who earn between $15,000 and $27,000 annually. But the World Bank statistics tell Lebanon’s actual story. Citing its (World Bank) numbers, Neaime estimates that only 5-10 percent fit this category. Seventy percent of the population generates an annual income of less than $10,000 annually while 15 percent live in abject poverty The other country I am focusing on is Egypt. Egypt is an Afro-Asiatic transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia, via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Most of Egypt's territory of 1,010,000 square kilometers (390,000 sq mi) lies within the Nile Valley of North Africa, but it is also considered a Mediterranean country as it is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north. It is also bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west. Egypt is bordered by Libya to the west, the Sudan to the south, and the Gaza Strip and Israel to the east. Egypt's important role in geopolitics stems from its strategic position: a transcontinental nation, it possesses a land bridge (the Isthmus of Suez) between Africa and Asia, traversed by a navigable waterway (the Suez Canal) that connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean by way of the Red Sea. Apart from the Nile Valley, the majority of Egypt's landscape is desert, with a few oases scattered about. Winds create prolific sand dunes that peak at more than 100 feet (30 m) high. Egypt includes parts of the Sahara Desert and of the Libyan Desert. These deserts protected the Kingdom of the Pharaohs from western threats and were referred to as the "red land" in ancient Egypt. Egypt like so many other countries have been facing the problem of a diminishing middle class. The distribution of wealth is off and the majority of the country’s wealth is held by the top twenty percent. We can gather a great deal of information from the world-bank about these two countries. The only problem is that the information for Lebanon will not be as correct because the country was in civil war until the nineties. There is almost little to no information about the gross domestic products or the gross national income for those years prior to the 1990’s. What we can see is that the percentage of pupils in primary education has a constant increase as well as a population growth.
This tells us that there could be a positive correlation between the two. Lebanon being at war, had a positive effect on birth rate because as many people that were dying, people were being born. When we take a look at Lebanon’s percentage of salaried workers and wage workers, we see that the number declines from 2004 to 2009. The fact that there is always war going on in this country makes it hard for it to develop. Although the labor force in Lebanon has grown, it is in positive correlation with poverty. There are more people that can work than jobs available. We also see that in the later years the machinery used for agriculture has had a steady increase from its stagnate climb in the early 80’s.
The GDP for Lebanon was moving towards the right direction until 2003 and then there was a rapid drop as if they hit restart on everything. The information I gathered on Lebanon depicts a developing country that is geographically located between two neighboring countries that are constantly at war. The constant unstable economy is affecting the country’s ability to develop. In the years were there seems to be peace, the country is profiting and moving forward but when that is not the case things are in total chaos. When examining the information on Egypt, we find that the unemployment rate has been increasing since the early 80’s, as well as the population growth. It could be said that more and more people are born, but not as many jobs are being created. The percentage of pupils in primary education was much higher than that of Lebanon and that percent increased more than any statistic on the graph for Egypt. Historically speaking, the people of Egypt have always valued education. The GDP per capita fluctuates when we get to about the year 2000 for Egypt. There is a point where it drops from 6 to 1 in one year. This drop in GDP might have come from a natural disaster like famine or a drought. Also when we look at the statistics for Egypt we see that they have a lot more agriculture machinery than Lebanon. This could be attributed to the intellectual property of the more educated people they have in their country than Lebanon. If more people become educated, they will have the knowledge of how to create machines and things that would make hard work easier. Also we see that in the earlier 80s the life expectancy was much greater in Lebanon than in Egypt, which could be attributed to the advances in health in Lebanon. This statistic changed in the 90s because Egypt’s life expectancy jumped almost 20 years. There had to be a major advancement in health and medicine in those years. Egypt is a more developed country than Lebanon, but I think that if Lebanon was not the victim of war, both countries would stand on an even playing field. In both countries we see that the 80s were not prevalent at all. The information for Lebanon is non-existent and for Egypt, that graphs show no drastic change. The major changes in the indicators of economic development tend to happen in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. The reports clearly show that even in times of war or when there is high unemployment, the population will steadily increase. It is the role of the governments to step in and target the problems of poverty and the inefficiency in the work force because when the if the problem does not get handled when its small it will continue to grow an become out of hand. In my opinion, Lebanon will never become a developed country until its two neighboring countries work out their disagreements. Concluding the information from the world-bank shows us that out of the Lebanon and Egypt, Egypt is the more developed country.

Averages by Decade:
1980-89
Egypt:
GDP per capita growth (annual %) 3.533791 GNI growth (annual %) 6.60391
GNI per capita growth (annual %) 4.200536
Gross National Income (constant LCU) 2.04418E+11
Gross Capital Formation (% of GDP) 28.64711958 Gross Savings (% of GDP) 21.83046275
Population growth (annual %) 2.28011 Urban Population Growth: 2.227282
Malnutrition prevalence: 11.6 Life expectancy at birth: 61.34962
Secondary Education: 3525393 Literacy Rate, Adult: 44.42399
Exports of goods and services: 22.21704 Imports of goods and services: 35.37601
Trade (% of GDP) 57.59306 Agriculture, value added: 19.75109
Industry, value added: 30.55041 Telephone lines: 1.6884

Lebanon:
Population Growth (annual %) 0.280524
Urban population growth (annual %) 1.617858 Life expectancy at birth: 68.85038
Secondary Education: 278271.5 Exports of goods and services: 18.3595
Imports of goods and services: 91.57676 Trade (% of GDP) 109.9363
Telephone lines: 13.17221
1990-99
Egypt:
GDP per capita growth (annual %) 2.630217498 GNI growth (annual %) 4.573544795
GNI per capita growth (annual %) 2.865192251
Gross National Income (constant LCU) 3.07933E+11
Gross Capital Formation (% of GDP) 20.89051948 Gross Savings (% of GDP) 24.73081071
Population growth (annual %) 1.647960435 Urban Population Growth: 1.448558197
Malnutrition prevalence: 9.819999886 Life expectancy at birth: 66.49989268
Secondary Education: 6163771 Literacy Rate, Adult: 55.587
Exports of goods and services: 21.80759 Imports of goods and services: 28.53836
Trade (% of GDP) 50.34595 Agriculture, value added: 17.24946
Industry, value added: 31.79925 Telephone lines: 4.550713
Lebanon
GDP per capita growth: 7.878598882 GNI growth (annual %) 2.131855279
GNI per capita growth: 0.914850264 Gross national income: 2.48293E+13
Gross capital formation (% of GDP) 27.95089631
Population Growth (annual %) 1.649761424 Urban population growth: 2.020041944
Malnutrition prevalence: 3.5 Life expectancy at birth: 71.94040488
Secondary Education: 330699.5 Exports of goods and services: 1261468
Imports of goods and services: 63.60298 Trade (% of GDP) 76.21766
Agriculture, value added: 7.192895 Industry, value added: 25.14547
Telephone lines: 15.7597

2000-2009
Egypt
GDP per capita growth (annual %) 3.163999849 GNI growth (annual %) 4.781624876
GNI per capita growth (annual %) 3.066691917
Gross National Income (constant LCU) 4.7442E+11
Gross Capital Formation (% of GDP) 18.90388259 Gross Savings (% of GDP) 20.96796752
Population growth (annual %) 1.649889647 Urban Population Growth: 1.717264343
Malnutrition prevalence: 6.300000072 Life expectancy at birth: 69.37959268
Secondary Education: 5774431.8 Literacy Rate, Adult: 68.88938522
Exports of goods and services: 25.05663588 Imports of goods and services:29.10317431
Trade (% of GDP) 54.15981019 Agriculture, value added: 15.11854049
Industry, value added: 35.81203547 Telephone lines: 12.92043745
Lebanon
GDP per capita growth (annual %) 2.204020164 GNI growth (annual %) 5.376981232
GNI per capita growth (annual %) 2.335342945
Gross National Income (constant LCU) 3.17233E+13
Gross Capital Formation (% of GDP) 22.50566667 Gross Savings (% of GDP) 3.238003077
Population growth (annual %) 2.966658773 Urban Population Growth: 3.10277182
Malnutrition prevalence: 4.199999809 Life expectancy at birth: 76.73790488
Secondary Education: 325784.1 Literacy Rate, Adult: 89.61244202
Exports of goods and services: 28.53315387 Imports of goods and services:51.45739909
Trade (% of GDP) 79.99055296 Agriculture, value added: 5.476909235
Industry, value added: 18.92095237 Telephone lines: 17.7388114

References:
Worldbank.org
http://www.heritage.org/index/country/egypt http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/egypt/index.html http://www.heritage.org/index/country/lebanon https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/le.html