Public Salaries Kept on Advancing for the 5th Year in a Row by September 2014

The Lebanese Ministry of Finance (MoF) recently released a report regarding “Salaries, Wages and Related Benefits” for the period Jan-Sept 2014 revealing a 7.7% y-o-y progress from the same period in 2013. In fact, the latter almost constituted 32% of total primary expenditures during Jan-Sept 2014 compared to 28% in Jan-Sept 2013. As a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Lebanese government’s spending on public salaries stood at 4.7%. On a comparative scale, and while the Lebanese government’s spending on public salaries almost reached 22% of total government expenditures, it stood near 16% in Germany, at a similar 25% in the United Kingdom and France and at 29% in the United States.

Back to Lebanon, and noting that “Salaries, Wages and Related Benefits” includes the cost of basic salaries, allowances, indemnities and several other payments, they went up from $2.08B by September 2013 to $2.24B during the first three quarters of 2014. In details, the four main reasons behind this increase were the yearly growth of basic salaries payments to military and education personnel, the rise of allowances and the uptick in the payments to Government subscription and contribution in the Employees Cooperative.

Starting with the basic salaries payments to military personnel, which grasp near 61.9% of the total, they edged up by $51.08M to settle at $1.39B by the end of September 2014. As for the basic salaries payments related to the education sector (constituting 22% of total “Salaries, Wages and Related Benefits”), they witnessed an 11.9% y-o-y jump to $492.2M. Third, total allowances (14.5% of total spending on public wages) posted a $29.85M increase to $324.38M. Finally, the government contribution to employees’ cooperative inched up from $90.88M to reach $118.74M by the end of 2014.

Evolution of “Salaries, Wages and Related Benefits” Up to September (In $B)

Public Salaries Kept on Advancing for the 5th Year in a Row by September 2014

Source: Ministry of Finance

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