Lebanon’s fiscal deficit (Budgetary & Treasury) narrowed by 12.75% on an annual basis to around $2.95 billion in the first eight months of the current year, compared to $3.38 billion during that same period last year. Concurrently, the primary balance (Budget & Treasury) registered a surplus of $369 million, in comparison with a much smaller surplus of $74 million at end of August 2018. In detail, government revenues (Budget & Treasury) fell by 4.48% y-o-y to just above $7.70 billion owing to a 10.09% drop in non-tax revenues to $1.26 billion and a 44.79% nosedive in treasury transaction revenues to $341.94 million, which together outweighed the 0.95% increase in tax revenues to $6.10 billion. The improvement in tax revenues comes as a result of the 7.86% expansion in miscellaneous tax revenues to $3.65 billion eclipsing the 9.23% dip in VAT revenues to $1.60 billion and the 5.07% decrease in customs revenues to $854.70 million. On the other hand, non-tax revenues were dragged by the 29.67% contraction in telecom revenues to $457.82 million. In parallel, government expenditures (Budget & Treasury) (including debt service) plunged by 6.92% on a yearly basis to about $10.66 billion by August 2019. In fact, general expenditures receded by 5.24% to $6.54 billion, with transfers to Electricité Du Liban (EDL) shedding 7.76% to $1 billion, while budget expenditures over previous years soared by 33.10% to just over $1.35 billion. Treasury expenditures also sank by 27.09% annually to $792.40 million. Debt service continued to weigh heavily on the government’s finances although it dropped by 3.95% y-o-y to around $3.32 billion, from $3.46 billion a year before. Consequently, the deficit to total expenditures ratio narrowed to 27.70% by August 2019, from 29.55% a year ago. In addition, the linearly extrapolated deficit to GDP ratio based on August’s figures is estimated at 7.60%, compared to a target deficit to GDP ratio of 7.59% in the 2019 draft budget law.