Figures issued by Banque du Liban show that utilized credits by the private sector from commercial banks and financial institutions totaled $68.7bn at the end of 2017, constituting an increase of 6.9% from $64.2bn at end-2016. Trade & services accounted for $22.6bn or 33% of utilized credits at the end of 2017, followed by personal credit with $21.4bn (31.2%), construction with $11.5bn (16.7%), industry with $6.8bn (10%), financial intermediaries with $3.6bn (5.3%) and agriculture with $785.2m (1.1%), while other sectors represented the remaining $1.9bn (2.8%). The distribution of credit by type shows that advances against real estate totaled $25.9bn and accounted for 37.7% of private sector utilized credits at the end of 2017. Overdrafts followed with $18.9bn (27.5%), then advances against personal guarantees with $12.6bn (18.4%), advances against cash collateral or bank guarantees with $7.8bn (11.3%), advances against other real guarantees with $2.2bn (3.2%) and advances against financial values with $1.2bn (1.8%).

The aggregate number of loan beneficiaries grew by 3.7% from the end of 2016 to 615,602 at end-2017; while 69.7% of beneficiaries had loans ranging from LBP5m to LBP100m at the end of 2017. Beirut and its suburbs accounted for 75.1% of bank credits and for 53.2% of beneficiaries. Mount Lebanon followed with 12.7% of credits and 18.5% of beneficiaries, then South Lebanon with 4.7% of credits and 10.1% of beneficiaries, North Lebanon with 4.4% of credits and 10.7% of beneficiaries, and the Bekaa region with 3.2% of credits and 7.4% of beneficiaries.