Transfers to EDL Rose yearly by 32.26% to stand at $1.76B by December 2018

According to the Ministry of Finance, transfers to EDL witnessed a significant yearly increase of 32.26% to reach $ 1.76B by December 2018.

In details “Payments to fuel and oil gas suppliers KPC and SPC” (which grasped 98.92% of the total amount) climbed yearly by 38.37% to $1.75B by the end of 2018. This significant rise can be mainly attributed to the 28.34% yearly increase in average prices of crude oil to $71.69 /barrel by December 2018 and higher Volume of imported fuel oil and gas oil by 5.50% and 4.80% respectively, during the same period. Moreover, Transfers to Electricity Syria during 2018 dropped to $12.67M in compared to $62.34M in 2017.

Furthermore, EDL contributed 0.3% from a total oil bill of $1.74B in Jan‐December 2018, down from its previous share of 2% from a total oil bill of $1.28B, in same period of 2017.

Worth mentioning that Lebanon’s fiscal deficit expanded from $3.75B by December 2017 to $6.25B (10.87% of GDP) by December 2018 and EDL transfers represented a share of 14.4% of the government’s primary expenditures, which reached $12.18B during 2018, compared to a share of 13% by December 2017. In its new budget the Lebanese Cabinet has approved a plan to upgrade the electricity sector in order to narrow its deficit by improving production and distribution, and raising tariffs.

Contribution of EDL in the Total Oil Bill by December

Transfers to EDL Rose yearly by 32.26% to stand at $1.76B by December 2018

Source: MoF

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *