by Dana Halawi
BEIRUT, Dec. 25 (Xinhua) -- Over 10 years ago, Beirut's downtown was one of the most attractive areas visited by tourists and locals throughout the year to enjoy its popular restaurants and shops.
People would even stand for hours to wait for a table at some of the renowned restaurants and cafes in this area.
Also, the high demand on shops by people aiming to open businesses in Riad El Solh and Nejme Square led to a rise in the cost of rents in downtown to levels never witnessed before in any other regions in the country.
However, 10 years later, economic slowdown in the country turned Beirut's downtown into a "ghost town" with most of the shops shutting down while the others struggling to make ends meet.
The protests that have taken place since Oct. 17 exacerbated the challenges facing shop owners in this part of the city.
"Our sales dropped by over 90 percent since the beginning of the protests over two months ago," a woman working at a clothes shop in Beirut's downtown told Xinhua.
She said her shop closed for most of the protests' days due to violence witnessed in the area.
Protests in Beirut's downtown started in a peaceful manner on Oct. 17 but over a month they turned violent with clashes taking place among protesters, political parties and the Lebanese army in addition to witnessing the blockage of the different roads leading to the heart of the downtown area.
"If the situation remains the same in the coming month or two, we will probably shut down because we cannot even cover our expenses," said the woman who refused to be identified by name.
For his part, Yehya Sabbagh, owner of a mobile phone shop in Beirut's downtown, said he wouldn't have been able to keep his shop opened if he hadn't already paid for his rent at the beginning of this year.
"I think we may have to close in a few months if protests continue," he told Xinhua.
Shops in Beirut's downtown have almost shut their doors before the protests due to economic slowdown, rival competition, in addition to the low purchasing power of the Lebanese and the high cost of operation in the downtown area, said Adnan Rammal, representative of the trade sector in the Economic and Social Council.
"However, some shops in downtown were impacted by the protests and they have closed as a result of these demonstrations especially when it comes to pubs and cafes in Uruguay street," Rammal told Xinhua.
Rammal said that shops and cafes at Beirut Souks were very much impacted following the protests and they are rarely visited today.
However, political analyst Youssef Diab said that the economic deterioration was never caused by recent protests but by the failing policies of successive governments over the past years.
"The country has reached this level of deterioration due to the policies adopted by Lebanese officials and not because of the protests that took place in the past two months. We are paying the price of wrong political decisions which led to an economic slowdown," Diab said.
Diab said he feared that Lebanon would go through an even worse situation in the coming years.
Lebanon has appointed Hassan Diab as prime minister tasked with the formation of a new government.
The Lebanese fear an isolation and lack of financial support by the international community and Arab countries, on which they depended a lot in the past.
