According to the data released by the Ministry of Finance (MoF), Lebanese gross public debt increased by an annual 7.6% to settle at $91.64B in 2019.
In details, local currency debt (denominated in LBP) climbed by a yearly 12.11% to $57.90B. Correspondingly, domestic debt composed 63.18% of gross public debt, up from last year’s 60.66% of total in 2018. The total outstanding Lebanese Treasury Bills in LBP amounted $56.85B in 2019. In details, the “Banking System”, “Public Sector” and “Individuals and individual institutions” grasped a share of 87.60%, 11.46% and 0.94% of the total , respectively.
Meanwhile, total debt denominated in foreign currency recorded an uptick of 0.76% year-in-year (YOY) to amount to $33.74B over the same period. In fact, the foreign debt constituted 36.8% of total gross debt, compared to 39.2% in 2018.In details, the total outstanding Eurobonds issued by the government amounted $31.31B in 2019. BDL held in December 2019 $5.7B of Eurobonds.
In turn, Lebanon’s total net debt, excluding public sector deposits at commercial banks and the central bank, added 7.29%YOY to $81.24B over the same period.
Worth mentioning that currently the Lebanese Government is discussing the possibility of rescheduling its foreign debt. In total, Lebanon has $2.5B principal maturities, and if the coupon rates are added the entire amount of Eurobonds this year will be approximately $4.4B.
Breakdown of Gross Public Debt in December in $B
Source: MOF