The Lebanese Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil revealed that the Council of Ministers has made important progress in its discussions of the draft budget for 2019, explaining that "the deficit will be 8.3 percent of GDP or less, while the budget deficit recorded last year 11.2% of GDP".
"We have reached an encouraging and important result. We were talking about an 8.7 percent reduction, and as a result of the additional decisions that raised imports, we reached a further reduction of 8.3 percent," Khalil told the reporters at the end of a cabinet meeting.
Khalil also explained that "the draft budget includes the provision of about one trillion pounds ($663 million) of debt service costs," pointing out that "the government intends to reduce the costs of debt service through the issuance of treasury bonds at a rate of 1 percent," noting that "the ministers will meet next Monday for a final review of the draft budget."
It is worth noting that Lebanon is one of the world's largest debt-burdened countries with 150% of GDP.
Source: (Al-Arabiya.net, Edited)
