What makes Lebanon’s ranking even more depressing for Lebanese is that in August 2014, in a bid to halt the brain drain and boost local employment opportunities, the Lebanese Central Bank announced “Circular 331”, which outlined an initiative that it hoped would inject as much as US$400 million into Lebanese entrepreneurship, guaranteeing 75 per cent of local bank financing of the “knowledge economy through direct start-up equity investment or indirect start-up support entities”.

What was in it for the local banks? In return for investing in knowledge-based start-ups economy, the Central Bank offered them seven-years’ interest-free credit, which could be ploughed into treasury bonds giving 7 per cent interest.

A long wait for an economic revival in Lebanon