Lebanon's fiscal deficit declined during the first five months of this year 2020 by 16.2 percent, in light of a 15.7 percent decline in public spending.
The decline in public spending is due to the tangible drop in debt service after Lebanon’s failure to pay its foreign debts, in addition to the decline in transfers by the “EDL” in the wake of the significant decline in international oil prices during this period.
In parallel, public revenues decreased by 15.4 percent on an annual basis, in light of the slowdown and weakening of economic activity after the declaration of the state of emergency due to the "Corona" virus since the beginning of the year. A detailed look at the public finance statistics shows that public revenues fell to $ 3.8 billion during the first five months of this year, compared to $ 4.5 billion during the same period in 2019. Meanwhile, public expenditures recorded a net decrease from $ 6.9 billion to $ 5.8 billion between the two periods. Accordingly, the fiscal deficit decreased from $ 2.4 billion during the first five months of 2019 to $ 2 billion during the same period of the current year 2020.
Source (Economic newsletter site, Edited)
