Raoul Nehme


Raoul Nehme is the Lebanese minister of economy and trade.

Life

Nehme went to school at Collège Notre Dame de Jamhour and studied in France at Ecole polytechnique and Mines ParisTech. He is part of Greek-Catholic community.

Career

In January 2020, he was appointed minister of economy and trade by Prime Minister Hassan Diab. He joined the government under the Free Patriotic Movement ticket, though he is not a member of this party himself.
Prior to his appointment in the government, he worked in the banking industry. He has had experience handling several establishment in crisis:
He is the president and co-founder of NGO Jouzour Lebanon, an environmental NGO dedicated to reforestation.

Minister of Economy

His nomination as minister of economy came as Lebanon was experiencing a double political and economic crisis that resulted in a default on March 9, 2020. The general situation was further complicated by the coincident COVID-19 pandemic. As minister of economy, Nehme introduced measures to protect the consumer by limiting abusive price increases, banning exportation of critical medical equipment and implementing measures to mitigate the propagating of the SARS-CoV-2.