Budget deficit drops
by 6.5 percent in 2019

Primary deficit

shrinks by 55 percent

The fiscal deficit narrowed by 6.5 percent last year when compared with 2018. Total deficit reached the equivalent of $5.9 billion.

The primary deficit (deficit excluding $5.6 billion in interest on debt and principal repayments) plunged by 55 percent to $287 million.

Total revenues and Treasury inflows decreased by nearly four percent to $11 billion. Total expenditure and Treasury disbursements dropped by five percent to $17 billion.

The largest drop in revenues came from VAT (minus 15 percent) and telecommunications (minus 11 percent).

The largest decrease in disbursement consisted of Treasury transfers to Electricité du Liban (minus 14 percent).

The government’s target was to cut the deficit-to-GDP ratio for 2019 to 7.6 percent from 11.2 percent realized in 2018. It had pledged at the CEDRE donor conference held in Paris in 2018 to reduce the fiscal deficit by one percent per annum over five consecutive years.


Source: Ministry of Finance