Ineffective economic reforms, corruption, tourist stoppages during the pandemic and an explosion that in 2020 destroyed large parts of Beirut.
These are considered to be some of the reasons why, according to the World Bank, Lebanon is in the worst economic crisis since the 1850s.
In June 2021, 77 percent of the population did not have money so it was enough for food.
The situation has only worsened since then.
Makram Rabah is a historian in Beirut and highlights another reason why the country does not seem to be able to recover from the crisis: The drug captagon, popular throughout the Middle East, is a growing billion-dollar industry.
- Illegal trade in captains has had a negative impact on the economy as sanctions have been imposed on Lebanon.
It is no longer allowed to export agricultural products to Saudi Arabia, among other places.
Lebanon is seen as, and is, a drug state at present.
"Conducts shadow economy"
The Lebanese state is not involved in the drug trade, but parts of it are, especially those who are loyal to Hezbollah, says Makram Rabah.
- The border with Syria where the trade takes place is also impossible to guard, because it is in Hezbollah's grip.
Hezbollah itself says that they control the border to resist, but in fact they are conducting an entire shadow economy - and not just with the captagon.
According to Makram Rabah, the smuggling of captagon in the Middle East increased already during the Syrian revolution in 2011 and during the ensuing civil war.
- Captagon is both very cheap to produce and cheap to buy.
The producers took advantage of the situation to make money: first the Syrian regime, then IS and after a while also Hezbollah.
Click on the clip to hear more from the historian Makram Rabah and see more in the Foreign Office: Drug Economy tonight on SVT Play from 7.30 pm or on SVT2 at 10 pm.