The Lebanese Gross Public Debt (GPD) amounted to $68.88B (LBP 103,838B) in the first eight months of 2015, widening by 4.59% year-on-year (y-o-y) and 3.47% since the start of the year. Accordingly, Lebanon’s public debt reached 141.49% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP at end December 2014) compared to 136.75% in December 2014, noting that the estimated growth for the Lebanese economy is projected to record a mere 0.5% this year.
Debt in domestic currency, representing 62.03% of total gross debt, grew by 4.31% year-to-date (y-t-d) to reach the equivalent of $42.73B by August, while foreign currency debt ticked up by 2.13% y-t-d to stand at $26.11B or 53.63% of GDP .
The Net Public Debt, which excludes public sector deposits at commercial banks and the Central Bank (BdL), expanded by 4.54% y-t-d to $59.91B, or 123.05% of GDP. Worth noting that public sector deposits have actually fallen by 3.11% to $8.98B since the start of the year.
Commercial banks remained the largest subscribers of Treasury bills and bonds with a share of 47.7%, followed by 35.5% stake for BdL and 16.8% for the non-banking sector.
Share of Local Debt and Foreign Debt from Gross Public Debt in August ($B)
Source: Association of Banks in Lebanon