Causality between Economic Growth, Export, and External Debt Servicing: The Case of Lebanon

Abstract

The econometric relationship between external public debt, exports and economic growth in Lebanon has been rarely examined. This study empirically investigates the relationship between economic growth, exports and external debt of Lebanon through an econometric analysis over the period 1970-2010 with the inclusion of a fourth macroeconomic variable that is the exchange rate. The exports were introduced in the model to test the export-led growth hypothesis for Lebanon. We explore this relationship using the vector error correction models (VECM) and we employ Granger causality technique in order to investigate the presence of causality among these variables. The results show that both short run and long run relationships exist among these variables. Moreover, the finding suggests, i) bidirectional Granger causality between GDP and external debt servicing, ii) unidirectional Granger causality that runs from external debt to exports, iii) unidirectional causality running from exports to economic growth, and iv) unidirectional causality running from exchange rate to economic growth.