According to the Ministry of Finance, Lebanon’s fiscal deficit widened by 9.32% to reach $1.63B by April 2016, versus a deficit of $1.49B in the same period in 2015.
In details, in the first four months of the year, total revenues witnessed an annual increase of 5.86% to $3.32B, while total expenditures grew at a faster rate of 6.97% to $4.97B. As such, the increase in revenues can be justified by the yearly rise of 4.6% in total tax revenues, where both customs revenues and VAT revenues grew by 2.41% and 3.8% to $437.08M and $822.18M, respectively. As for non-tax revenues, they were boosted by the 1.02% y-o-y increase in telecom revenues to $347.5M.
In terms of expenditures, most expenses were allocated for transfers to EDL and the debt service.
As oil prices dropped 27.58% y-o-y by April 2016 the value of transfers to EDL recorded, over the same period, an annual decline of 45.6% to $210.21M. As for the debt service, it expanded by an annual 6.63% to $1.44B by April 2016, on account of the higher interest payments on both domestic and foreign debt.
The primary deficit, which excludes Lebanon’s debt service, reached $151.23M by April 2016, up from a deficit of $95.88M in the same period of 2015.
Yearly Fiscal Deficit by April (In $B)
Source: Ministry of finance