Lebanon’s fiscal deficit (Budgetary & Treasury) narrowed by 21.74% on an annual basis to around $2.41 billion in the first seven months of the current year, compared to $3.08 billion during that same period last year. Concurrently, the primary balance (Budget & Treasury) registered a surplus of $577 million, in comparison with a much smaller surplus of $68 million at end of July 2018. In detail, government revenues (Budget & Treasury) fell by 3.74% y-o-y to just below $6.98 billion owing to a 3.50% drop in non-tax revenues to $1.12 billion and a 48.99% nosedive in treasury transaction revenues to $297.74 million, which together outweighed the 1.01% increase in tax revenues to $5.55 billion. The improvement in tax revenues comes as a result of the 7.21% expansion in miscellaneous tax revenues to $3.32 billion eclipsing the 8.03% dip in VAT revenues to $1.48 billion and the 4.87% decrease in customs revenues to $748.63 million. On the other hand, non-tax revenues were dragged by the 5.53% contraction in telecom revenues to $457.82 million. In parallel, government expenditures (Budget & Treasury) (including debt service) plunged by 9.11% on a yearly basis to about $9.39 billion by July 2019. In fact, general expenditures receded by 8.97% to $5.66 billion, with transfers to Electricité Du Liban (EDL) shedding 11.83% to $838.69 million, while budget expenditures over previous years soared by 27.59% to just over $1.29 billion. Treasury expenditures also sank by 23.17% annually to $738.73 million. Debt service continued to weigh heavily on the government’s finances although it dropped by 5.07% y-o-y to around $2.99 billion, from $3.15 billion a year before. Consequently, the deficit to total expenditures ratio narrowed to 25.67% by July 2019, from 29.81% a year ago. In addition, the linearly extrapolated deficit to GDP ratio based on July’s figures is estimated at 7.09%, compared to a target deficit to GDP ratio of 7.59% in the 2019 draft budget law.