According to Ministry of Finance (MoF) latest figures, after a lull of four years, Lebanon’s fiscal surplus (cash basis) stood at $36.12M by December 2024, despite the severe war that Lebanon faced late last year. In October and November 2024 months alone, Lebanon recorded a fiscal deficit (cash basis) of $333.34M as a result of the war.
In detail, the government revenues (including treasuries) stood at $3,890.87M by December 2024. On the counterpart, total expenditures (including treasuries) reached $3,854.75M by December 2024. It is worth noting that the primary balance which excludes debt service ($392.11M) posted a surplus of $ 428.23M by December 2024.
Fiscal revenues recorded $3,419.37M. Tax revenues (constituting 82.88% of total revenues) reached $2,833.92M by December 2024 out of which revenues from VAT (47.39% of total tax receipts) stood at $1,342.87M. As for Non-tax revenues (17.12% of total revenues), they recorded $585.45M by December 2024 out of which “Telecom revenues” reached $221.71M by the same period.
On the expenditures’ side, total debt servicing (including the interest payments and principal repayment) reached $392.11M by December 2024. In details, foreign debt principal repayment was $ 202.78M and interest payments recorded $189.33M ($ 57.02M on domestic debt and $132.31M on foreign debt).
Sources: MoF, BLOMINVEST
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