The Lebanese Gross Public Debt (GPD) reached $69.04B (LBP 104,081B) by end October, widening by 4.28% year-on-year (y-o-y) and 3.71% since the start of the year. Accordingly, Lebanon’s public debt reached 141.82% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP at end December 2014) compared to 136.75% in December 2014, noting that the Lebanese economy is expected to stagnate in 2015.
Debt in domestic currency, representing 62.18% of total gross debt, added 4.81% year-to-date (y-t-d) to reach the equivalent of $42.93B in October, while foreign currency debt augmented by 1.97% y-t-d to settle 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 5.41% y-t-d to $60.41B, or 124.08% of GDP. Worth noting that public sector deposits had actually fallen by 6.80% to $8.63B since the start of the year.
Commercial banks remained the largest subscribers of Treasury bills and bonds with a share of 47.1%, followed by 36.1% stake for BdL and 16.8% for the non-banking sector.
Share of Local Debt and Foreign Debt from Gross Public Debt in October ($B)
Source: Association of Banks in Lebanon