Standard & Poor's Global Credit Ratings, said that Lebanon's budget plan to reduce its fiscal deficit to 7.6 percent of GDP this year may not be enough to restore the confidence broken by the debt.
The growing concerns about Lebanon's finances, pushed S & P's to rate the country at B- rating with a negative outlook by the beginning of March.
Zahabia Saleem Gupta, Lebanon’s main analyst at S & P said that "declaring the deficit cut to 7.6 percent from more than 11 percent last year may not be enough in itself to improve the confidence of depositors and nonresident investors, which fell lately".
Mrs. Gupta stressed that "the failure to achieve the new target is possible, especially that any cost reduction measures will be applied only in the second half of the year," adding that "our estimates indicate a fiscal deficit of 2019 at around 10 percent, and in light of the absence of any substantial revenue consolidation and cost cutting measures, we expect Lebanon's public debt ratio to continue to rise above 160% of GDP by 2022 from 143% in 2018."
Source: (Al-Arabiya.net, Edited)
