Lebanon’s fiscal deficit (Budgetary & Treasury) contracted by 20.34% year-on-year to around $2.42 billion during the first half of 2019, compared to $3.04 billion a year earlier. In addition, the primary balance (Budget & Treasury) registered a surplus of $309 million, in comparison with a deficit of around $155 million in the first half of 2018. In detail, government revenues (Budget & Treasury) fell by 3.16% y-o-y to just above $5.75 billion owing to the 55.33% plunge in treasury transaction revenues to $228.51 million outweighing the 1.26% increase in tax revenues to $4.63 billion and the 4.35% hike in non-tax revenues to $897.71 million. The improvement in tax revenues comes as a result of the 8.02% expansion in miscellaneous tax revenues to $2.88 billion outweighing the 9.47% dip in VAT revenues to $1.12 billion and the 5.75% decrease in customs revenues to $625.55 million. Similarly, non-tax revenues rose due to the 12.41% increase in telecom revenues to $357.82 million. On the other hand, treasury transaction revenues contracted as a result of the 84.76% nosedive in other treasury transactions to $51.6 million, coupled with the 12.81% drop in treasury guarantees to $33.78 million outweighing the 9.60% rise in municipality treasury transactions to $103.24 million. In parallel, government expenditures (Budget & Treasury) (including debt service) fell sharply by 8.97% on an annual basis to around $8.17 billion by June 2019. In fact, general expenditures fell by 8.02% to $4.79 billion with transfers to Electricité Du Liban (EDL) shedding 2.86% to around $717.35 million and treasury expenditures falling by 26.47% y-o-y to $650.29 million. Concurrently, budget expenditures over previous years soared by 12.86% to $1.14 billion. Debt service continued to weigh heavily on the government’s finances although it dropped by 5.32% y-o-y to around $2.73 billion, from $2.88 billion a year before. Consequently, the deficit to total expenditures ratio fell to 29.60% by June 2019, from 33.82% a year ago. In addition, the linearly extrapolated deficit to GDP ratio based on June’s figures is estimated at 8.30%, compared to a target deficit to GDP ratio of 7.59% in the 2019 draft budget law.