According to Lebanon’s Ministry of Finance (MoF), personnel costs decreased annually 2.26% to reach $4.34B by August 2020. This decline was driven by the 55.13% fall in “End of service indemnities”. Meanwhile payments related to “retirement compensation”, “transfer to public institutions to cover salaries” and “salaries, wages and social benefits” recorded an increase of 8%, 3% and 0.7% respectively, in the first eight months of the year.
In details, payments for the sub-account of “salaries, wages, and related benefits” (constituting 62.43% of the total personnel costs) rose by 0.72% year-on-year (y-o-y) to reach $2.71B by August 2020. This rise was mainly attributed to the y-o-y increase in “allowances and “basic salaries” for military personnel by 27.97% and 1% to reach $400.66M and $1.34B respectively, by August 2020. However, “Education personnel” recorded an annual decrease of 16.52% to reach $502.82M.
Personnel costs represented 71.5% of primary expenditures in Jan-Aug 2020. Additionally, personnel costs represented 50% of total expenditures by August 2020, compared to 41.7% in August 2019, respectively. The main reason behind the increase in the share of personnel cost lies in a lower expenditure base which dropped annually by an 18.5% during Jan-Aug 2020.
Annual Change in Personnel Cost Breakdown by Component by January-August 2020 (in $M)
