The Application of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in Accounting: The Perspective of the Lebanese Economic Crisis

Aspects Of The Lebanese Crises

Since the year 2011 the Lebanese economy growth started to decline marking a series of political turmoil and unrests in neighboring countries (Asonitou and Hassal, 2019). A combination of political crisis and economic recessions accompanied with venomous protests had stagnated the economy until the crisis reached its peak in August 2020. Both the explosion of Beirut port and the Covid-19 virus outbreak added substantial constrains that led to an extensive economic crisis (Ryan et al., 2020). The influx of refugees from neighboring countries aggravated the economic crisis by limiting job opportunities and the personal income (Makdissi and Tannous, 2020) There was no escape from rising public debts, estimated at 172% in 2020 and made Lebanon to be the third most indebted country in the World (Waymire and Basu, 2011). The local currency deteriorated rapidly and the International Monitory Funds estimated inflation rate to phenomenally escalated from 2.9% in 2019 to 85.5% 2020 to affect all Lebanese economic sectors.

Over decades, successive governments have borrowed huge loans from local and foreign creditors. Half of the country’s income goes to pay off the creditors’ debt, and the majority of the remaining income is used to pay the salaries of public employees leaving a small proportion for productive investments (Nasrallah and El Khoury, 2021). The Lebanese government did not have many feasible solutions but to raise impose a new tax system which led to unprecedented levels of inflation, deterioration of the national currency and a sharp fall in personal income and savings values. The worldwide breakout of the Covid-19 virus additionally affected the Lebanese economy and necessitated imposing more than one lockdown to deepen the economic crisis (Serhan, 2020). Many businesses were forced to close their doors to contain the spread of the virus leading to further revenue cuts and staff numbers being slashed. As indicated in international reports, Lebanon sustained 6.5% contraction in 2019, and regionally the country scored the 2^nd largest negative economic projection for 2020 (Nasrallah and El Koury, 2021).