Lebanese traders say their losses reached 50 pct in past months 

(MENAFN - Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) Beirut Traders Association (BTA) said on Tuesday that their losses has reached 50 percent during the past couple of months, stressing that the country's economy is "completely ruined" after mid-August.

BTA Chief Nicolas Shammas said, in a press conference after a comprehensive meeting with representatives of other commerce associations and labors, that the state bears full responsibility for such losses in the economy, adding that they will not hold still in such dramatic scene and will start responding after the upcoming visit of Pope Benedict XVI next month.

Shammas said that measures they may take would be temporary closure of shops and civil disobedience, among other measures.

Meanwhile, Lebanese analysts predicted that Lebanese central bank index would witness a 38 percent drop as result of decline of incomes from the tourism sector when compared to 2010.

Preliminary estimates witnessed a drop in the mentioned sector, a decline of USD 4.3 billion when compared with 2010, Pier Al-Ashqar, Hoteliers Association said in a statement.

Al-Ashqar added that GCC countries instructions to their citizens not to come to Lebanon this summer due to security fears contributed in further worsening the tourism sector in the country