According to Ministry of Finance (MoF) latest figures, Lebanon’s fiscal deficit (cash basis) stood at $658.71M by April 2021, up from last year’s $1,751.01M.
In detail, the government revenues (including treasuries) added 5.14% on yearly basis to stand at $3,306.03M by April 2021. On the counterpart, total expenditures (including treasuries) retreated yearly by 19.01% to $3,964.74M by April 2021. It is worth noting that the primary balance which excludes debt service posted a deficit of $58.69M, compared to a deficit of $809.26M during the same period last year.
Fiscal revenues recorded a yearly increase by 19.07% to stand at $3,057.48M. Tax revenues (constituting 80.68% of total revenues) added an annual 11.71% to $2,433.99M by April 2021. Revenues from VAT (19.29% of total tax receipts) added 66.26% y-o-y to $635.87M.
As for Non-tax revenues (19.32% of total revenues), they increased from $388.91M by April 2020 to $623.49M by April 2021. Meanwhile, “Telecom revenues” added annually 43.48% to stand at $190.36M by the same period.
On the expenditures’ side, transfers to Electricity du Liban (EDL) (5.9% of general expenditure) slid by 33.57% to reach $256.80M. Moreover, total debt servicing (including the interest payments and principal repayment) reached $650.25M by April 2021, down by a yearly 43.69% such that interest payments alone retreated by 44.83% y-o-y to $615.10M. In details, interest payments on domestic debt slumped by 39.12% y-o-y to $603.96M. Meanwhile, interest payments on foreign debt registered a year-on-year significant drop by 90.93% to $11.15M.
In its turn, the treasury transactions (includes revenues and spending that are of temporary nature) posted a surplus of $50.24M by April 2021 compared to last year’s surplus of $213.01M.
Yearly Fiscal deficit by April (in $M)
Source: MoF, BLOMINVEST