According to Ministry of Finance (MoF) latest figures, Lebanon’s fiscal balance (cash basis) decreased by 111.55% from last year to register a surplus of $302.10M by September 2021 for the 6h month in a row reflecting the extent contractionary policy taken by the State that is characterized by decreased government spending and also increased taxes as revenues.
In more details, the government revenues (including treasuries) added 31.59% on yearly basis to stand at $9,221.31M by September 2021. On the counterpart, total expenditures (including treasuries) retreated yearly by 7.32% to $8,919.21M by September 2021. It is worth noting that the primary balance which excludes debt service posted a surplus of $1,789.07, compared to a deficit of $807.49M during the same period last year.
Fiscal revenues recorded a yearly increase by 38.12% to stand at $8,535.83M. Tax revenues (constituting 80.68% of total revenues) added an annual 35.82% to $6,917.80M by September 2021. Revenues from VAT (29.50% of total tax receipts) added 115.38% y-o-y to $1,904.62.
As for Non-tax revenues (16.28% of total revenues), they increased from $1,086.35M by September 2020 to $1,618.03M by September 2021. Meanwhile, “Telecom revenues” added annually 69.64% to stand at $697.85M by the same period.
On the expenditures’ side, transfers to Electricity du Liban (EDL) (8% of general expenditure) decreased by 31.47% to reach $462.92M. Moreover, total debt servicing (including the interest payments and principal repayment) reached $1,403.59M by September 2021, down by a yearly 5.13% such that interest payments alone retreated by 5.68% y-o-y to 1,302.67M. In details, interest payments on domestic debt increased by 2.82% y-o-y to $1,271.88M. Meanwhile, interest payments on foreign debt registered a year-on-year significant drop by 78.63% to $30.79M.
In its turn, the treasury transactions (includes revenues and spending that are of temporary nature) posted a deficit of $323.35 by September 2021 compared to last year’s deficit of $329.39M.
Yearly Fiscal deficit by September (in $M)
