Researcher Mohammed Chamseddine spoke about "statistics that were conducted at the end of 2022, showing that the wealthy class in Lebanon constitutes 5% of the population, and the middle class 40%."

"It is obvious that the composition of the social classes in Lebanon has changed, and the percentage of the poor has risen from 25% to 55%," Chamseddine said in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat.

"This percentage is expected to increase significantly in 2023, if the current situation remains unchanged, and after the increase in customs duty and the continuous rise of the dollar exchange rate," he added.

"Every citizen with no savings is considered poor, according to multidimensional poverty, while in Lebanon we adopt poverty in its traditional concept, which is only 55%, where the income of these citizens is not enough to provide sufficient and healthy food," he stressed.

"The suffering has become greater today, and poverty is on the rise and will increase greatly in 2023 if the state does not find any solutions," he pointed out.

"The poor are distributed among the Lebanese governorates, but the majority of them, 73%, are in the north and the northern Bekaa, 43% are in Akkar, 30% are in the Bekaa, 15% are in Mount Lebanon, 10% are in the south, and 2% are in Beirut," he concluded.