About the Discussant
Senior Economist at The World Bank based in Beirut
Dr. Wissam Harake Wissam Harake is the World Bank’s senior economist for Lebanon. He joined the institution’s macroeconomics and fiscal management global practice in August 2013. Harake currently works on in-depth macroeconomic research, analysis, monetary and market monitoring and forecasts. He is the principal author and team leader for the ‘Lebanon Economic Monitor (LEM)’, which is the main regular publication by the World Bank on Lebanon’s macroeconomy and the source of the Bank’s macroeconomic forecasts. Before joining the Bank, Dr. Harake worked at the Institute of International Finance in Washington DC (2011-2013) as an economist in the Africa/Middle East department, where he conducted in-depth macroeconomic analyses and forecasts for selected countries in the region, namely Iraq, Ghana, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, and Qatar. Dr. Harake has a Ph.D. in economics from American University in Washington, DC, with a focus on international finance, monetary economics, and macroeconomics. He will be discussing Dr. Ishac Diwan’s paper titled “The Engines of Lebanon’s Economy".
