Lebanese hit the shops to stock up on essentials before 11 days of round-the-clock curfew began on Thursday.
Covid-19 cases surged in the country after the holiday period.
Authorities declared a state of health emergency on Monday evening, although the nation had already been under a less rigid lockdown last week.
Trust in the government is at an all-time low in Lebanon, where news that the economy ministry had raised the price of bread and rumours that pharmacies and supermarkets will not be exempt from closing, stirred panic among Lebanese.
Shoppers rushed to pharmacies, bakeries and supermarkets, where some aisles were emptied before the daily 5pm curfew.
Twenty-five-year-old Ali, a Beirut resident who lives by himself, filled an entire trolley with foodstuffs on the eve of the curfew.
“I am sure we will have another coronavirus surge because of all the people who went shopping in the past three days,” Ali says.
He told The National he was not worried about food shortages, as shop owners cannot afford to close, but preferred to stock up ahead of the 24-hour curfew.
Pharmacies have been exempted from closure during the curfew while supermarkets are allowed to open for limited hours on a delivery-only basis.
The Syndicate of Supermarket Owners warned that most stores do not have the logistical capacity to operate solely on deliveries.
Mohamed Fakhani, owner of the Fakhani supermarket chain, with seven branches in Beirut told The National there was no need to resort to hoarding.
He spoke as he handed change to the first person in a long line of customers at the cash register.
His small store in the central Mar Elias neighbourhood was busy on Tuesday until late in the afternoon.
The supermarket chain employs a fleet of 30 delivery drivers but Mr Fakhani believes they will come under pressure in the coming days.
“There is no need to worry, we will continue to deliver but clients cannot expect orders to arrive in 5 to 10 minutes as usual. It will take half an hour to an hour,” he said.
Souhail, a 37-year-old pharmacist, said rumours about pharmacies being forced to close further strained a sector already facing high demand and shortages.
Pharmacies had to restrict the number of certain products they are selling, a measure they had already been taking for the past couple of months for certain medications.
“People are asking for more products but we are only selling items by the box to avoid depleting stocks,” Souhail says. “Even for [baby formula], we are giving a maximum of two boxes per family.”
The restrictions have pushed Jamila, a young mother of four, to visit 18 pharmacies in one day to stock up on baby formula ahead of the strict lockdown.
“I am afraid to run out of milk. I can survive with little food, but my one-month-old baby needs milk and pharmacies I called said they will not be doing deliveries,” she says.
Many shoppers said did not trust the government to implement the lockdown rules, despite the new coronavirus surge.
Ghina, 29, and her husband Mohamed, 30, waited in line for 20 minutes to buy chicken at a packed shop in central Beirut. They said they were shopping for their parents, who are worried they may run out of food. The couple said they did not trust the government to look after the economy and public health.
“It’s all a show. The lockdown is going to make the economic situation worse and the number of new cases will not decrease. No one is respecting the rules,” Ghina says pointing at the long line in front of the shop.
The coronavirus pandemic has compounded a severe economic crisis in Lebanon that has pushed more than half of the population below the poverty line.
The recently married couple have a four-months-old baby, but live separately with their parents as they cannot afford to pay rent.
“We hope the country will get better economically and when it comes to the pandemic. All we want is to have our own house and to both live with our daughter.”
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Hales' batting career
Tests 11; Runs 573; 100s 0; 50s 5; Avg 27.38; Best 94
ODIs 58; Runs 1,957; 100s 5; 50s 11; Avg 36.24; Best 171
T20s 52; Runs 1,456; 100s 1; 50s 7; Avg 31.65; Best 116 not out
Match info
What: Fifa Club World Cup play-off
Who: Al Ain v Team Wellington
Where: Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain
When: Wednesday, kick off 7.30pm
