Global hotel consulting firm HVS valued a hotel room in Beirut at $190,000 in 2018, constituting the sixth highest valuation among hotel rooms in 14 cities in the Middle East region. In comparison, the average value per available room at hotels in the Middle East was $207,532 last year. The value of a room at hotels in Beirut was higher than the value of rooms in Madinah ($167,000), Manama ($144,000), and Ras Al Khaimah ($139,000), but was lower than the value of hotel rooms in Makkah ($238,000), Kuwait City ($206,000), and Abu Dhabi ($204,000). 

HVS used several parameters to provide a valuation of hotels rooms in the region, including the loan-to-value and debt coverage ratios. In addition, it used the Income Capitalization Approach to calculate the value of a hotel in 2018 and in coming years. This approach is a real estate appraisal method that allows investors to estimate the valuation of a property based on the income that the property generates.

The valuation of a hotel room in Beirut increased by 37.7% in 2018 following a growth of 66.3% in 2017, and relative to a decline of 4.9% in the average value of hotel rooms in the region last year. The growth in the value of a hotel room in Beirut in 2018 was the fourth highest regionally, behind Ras Al Khaimah (+82.9%), Manama (+63.6%), and Jeddah (+58%). HVS attributed the rise in the value of a room in Beirut in 2018 to an improvement in the hotels' revenues per available room, as well as in the hotels' aggregate net operating profit margins, which grew by four percentage points last year.  

Further, the value per available room at hotels in Beirut grew by a compound annual growth rate of 5% between 2015 and 2018, which, along with Egypt (+5%), were the only two markets in the Middle East to post an increase in their hotel room valuation in the 2015-18 period. In comparison, the average value of hotel rooms in the Middle East posted a CAGR of -18% in the 2015-18 period.

In its annual 'Special 301' review of the state of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and enforcement in U.S. trading partners around the world, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) kept Lebanon on the Watch List for the ineffective and inadequate protection of intellectual property rights and for severe copyright violations, along with 24 other countries and jurisdictions. The USTR placed Lebanon on the Watch List in 1999 and then downgraded it to the more critical Priority Watch List in 2001, where it remained until 2007. It then upgraded Lebanon to the Watch List in 2008, where it has remained since then. Lebanon, along with Egypt, Turkey and the UAE are the only countries from the Middle East & Africa region that are on the 2019 Watch List. Also, the USTR included 11 countries this year on its Priority Watch List, with Algeria, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia being the only countries from the Middle East & Africa that are included in the list. 

The USTR commended Lebanon's continued effort to promote intellectual property protection and enforcement in 2018, as well as the Lebanese Parliament's attempts to pass stalled intellectual property-related legislation. It also welcomed the Ministry of Economy & Trade's decision to start developing a national intellectual property strategy in coordination with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). However, the USTR noted that there are ongoing concerns regarding the progress on pending intellectual property legislative reforms, which include draft laws concerning trademarks and amendments to existing copyright and patent laws, inadequate protection against unfair commercial use, as well as unauthorized disclosure of data and information. Further, it indicated that IPR enforcement efforts in Lebanon have been improving slowly. However, it noted that enforcement officials require additional training in order to enhance their investigative skills. Also, it urged authorities to allocate sufficient resources for intellectual property protection and enforcement.

Figures issued by Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (ICE) indicate that Lebanon's external debt posted a return of 3.28% in April 2019, constituting the second highest return among 77 emerging markets included in ICE's External Debt EM Sovereign Index. Lebanon's external debt also registered the second highest return among 28 countries in the Middle East & Africa region, as well as among 45 markets in the Central & Eastern Europe and the Middle East & Africa (CEEMEA) region. Lebanon outperformed the emerging markets' return of 0.07% and the 'B'-rated sovereigns' return of           -1.35% in April 2019. 

Further, Lebanon's external debt posted a return of 6.77% in the first four months of 2019, which outperformed the overall emerging markets' return of 5.63% in the covered period. It registered the 19th highest return in the Middle East & Africa region, the 24th highest return in the CEEMEA region, as well as the 41st highest in emerging markets during the first four months of 2019. 

In parallel, ICE indicated that the option-adjusted spread on Lebanese Eurobonds was 758 basis points at the end of April 2019 compared to 793 basis points at end-2018. The spread on Lebanese Eurobonds was the second widest in the CEEMEA region and the fourth widest among emerging markets. It was wider than the emerging markets' overall spread of 284 basis points at the end of April 2019.