The 2019 Cost of Living Index, produced by crowd-sourced global database Numbeo, ranked the cost of living in Beirut as the 196th highest among 433 cities around the world and the second highest among 22 Arab cities. Also, the cost of living in Beirut was the highest among 92 cities in upper middle-income countries (UMICs) included in the survey. Based on the same set of cities included in the 2018 and 2019 surveys, Beirut's rank changed from 194th place in the 2018 survey to 190th place in the 2019 survey, reflecting a relative increase in the cost of living. The Cost of Living Index is an indicator of consumer goods prices, such as groceries, restaurants, transportation and utilities. Numbeo benchmarks the Index against New York City. It also issues a Rent Index, which is an estimation of apartment rents in a city compared to New York City rents. Numbeo relies on residents' inputs and uses data from official sources to compute the indices.  

According to the Cost of Living Index, consumer goods in Beirut are more expensive than in Barcelona, Detroit and Al Aïn in the UAE, while they are less costly than in Madrid, Belfast and Winnipeg in Canada. Basel in Switzerland ranked as the most expensive city in the world, while Rawalpindi in Pakistan came as the least expensive city globally. Beirut received a score of 60.41 points, which means that prices in Beirut are 39.6% lower than those in New York City.

In parallel, the Rent Index ranked Beirut in 133rd place globally, in fifth place among Arab cities, and in fourth place among cities in UMICs. Globally, renting an apartment in Beirut is more expensive than in Ottawa, Adelaide in Australia, and Manchester in the United Kingdom; while it is less expensive than in Kansas City, Calgary, and in Bakersfield, California. Further, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Dubai and Ajman in the UAE are the only Arab cities that have more expensive rents than Beirut. Lebanon received a score of 29.58 points on the index, which means that rent in Lebanon is 70.4% less expensive than in New York City. San Francisco has the highest apartment rents in the world, while rent in India's Bhopal is the lowest globally.

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) indicated that the mobile-cellular basket price in Lebanon was equivalent to 2.32% of the country's gross national income (GNI) per capita in 2017, or about $16.1 per month, relative to an average of about 4% of GNI per capita in Arab countries. The mobile-cellular basket covers the cost of a standard 30 outgoing calls per month at predetermined rates, plus 100 SMS messages. The cost of mobile-cellular basket in Lebanon was the 84th highest among 181 economies globally and the ninth highest among 20 Arab countries with available figures. Lebanon's mobile-cellular basket price was also the 25th highest among 51 upper middle-income countries (UMICs) included in the survey. The UAE has the cheapest mobile-cellular service among Arab countries at 0.19% of GNI per capita per month, while Mauritania has the most expensive such service in the region at 19.11% of GNI per capita per month.

In parallel, the cost of prepaid handset-based mobile broadband service in Lebanon was equivalent to 1.44% of the GNI per capita in Lebanon, or about $10 per month in 2017. The cost covers an entry-level mobile-broadband subscription with a validity of 30 days, with a minimum of 500 Megabytes of data volume allowance that is used through handheld devices such as a mobile phones or tablets. The cost of the service in Lebanon was the 90th highest globally, the 28th highest among 50 UMICs and the 11th highest among Arab countries. Qatar has the least expensive prepaid handset-based mobile broadband service among Arab countries at 0.32% of GNI per capita, while Mauritania has the most expensive such service in the region at 33.2% of GNI per capita per month.

The Lebanese government published the official text of Law 106 that amends several articles of the Tax Procedures Law (Law 44), which the Lebanese Parliament enacted during its session of November 12, 2018. Law 106 provided a definition for "beneficial owner" and required the inclusion of detailed information about beneficial owners in tax reporting. It said that the beneficial owner is a natural person who owns or effectively controls directly or indirectly the outcome of any activity conducted by another natural or moral person in Lebanon, even though the name of the beneficial owner may not appear in the legal documentation related to the activity.

The law aims to improve Lebanon's rating on the exchange of financial information in the second round review of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes (Global Forum), which was launched in June 2018. The Global Forum assigned to Lebanon a provisional rating of "Largely Compliant" on the good progress that Lebanese authorities made in implementing the Exchange of Information on Request (EOIR) standard. Lebanon's rating would improve if it implements all of the Global Forum's required recommendations. In this context, the Global Forum is focusing in the second round of its review on including provisions in the Lebanese tax system that are related to beneficial ownership, such as the definition of the beneficial owner, the mechanism to identify a beneficial owner, as well as the process of supervising them. The newly-imposed legal requirements allow the tax administration to monitor and regulate the activities of beneficial owners, which demonstrates Lebanon's commitment to the standards of the Global Forum, and to the fight against money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism. In addition, the country's commitment to global standards would prevent Lebanon from being blacklisted following the end of the second round review, which would deter any adverse financial and economic impact.