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8%
Average annual Fiscal Deficit stands at 8% of GDP.
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76%
Personnel Cost, Interest Payments and EDL Subsidies represent 76% of total Government expenses.
70%
Tax Revenues, mainly income tax, represent 70% of Government total revenues.
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40%
Telecom Surpluses represent 40% of Non-Tax Revenues.
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Tripling Fiscal Deficit
Fiscal deficit tripled between 2005 and 2019. It went from LBP 3 trillion in 2005 to LBP 9 trillion in 2019 driven mainly by tripling Personnel Cost. It amounted cumulatively to LBP 82 trillion, the equivalent of $54 billion at the time.
Tripling Personnel Cost and EDL Subsidies
Personnel Cost, Interest Payments and EDL Subsidies represented 76% of total Government expenses.
Personnel Cost tripled in 15 years reaching LBP 10.2 trillion in 2019 or around 12% of GDP.
EDL Subsidies tripled reaching LBP 2.3 trillion yielding only 36% increase in generated electricity.
Decreasing Non-Tax Revenues
Telecom Surpluses represented 40% of Non-Tax Revenues between 2005-2019 and the single most important item. They decreased by half to less than LBP 1.5 trillion in 2019 due to political appointments in the telecom sector and spoil sharing approach to SOEs by the established patronage system.
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