Lebanon’s fiscal deficit (Budgetary & Treasury) narrowed by 6.55% in 2019 to around $5.84 billion, compared to $6.25 billion in 2018. Concurrently, the primary deficit (Budget & Treasury) contracted to $287 million, in comparison with a deficit of $636 million in 2018. In detail, government revenues (Budget & Treasury) fell by 4.17% y-o-y to just below $11.07 billion owing to a 1.81% drop in tax revenues to $8.31 billion, a 35.07% nosedive in treasury transaction revenues to $523.78 million and a 1.98% drop in non-tax revenues to $2.23 billion. The decline in tax revenues comes as a result of the 15.17% dip in VAT revenues to $2.16 billion and the 11.09% decrease in customs revenues to $1.19 billion, eclipsing the 8.35% expansion in miscellaneous tax revenues to $4.96 billion. In addition, the drop in non-tax revenues came as a result of the 11.53% contraction in telecom revenues to $947.24 million. In parallel, government expenditures (Budget & Treasury) (including debt service) dropped by 5.00% in 2019 to about $16.90 billion. In fact, general expenditures receded by 5.99% to $10.11 billion, with transfers to Electricité Du Liban (EDL) shedding 14.28% to $1.51 billion, while budget expenditures over previous years soared by 37.64% to just below $1.89 billion. Treasury expenditures also sank by 13.01% annually to $1.24 billion. Debt service continued to weigh heavily on the government’s finances although it dropped by 1.08% y-o-y to around $5.55 billion, from $5.61 billion a year before. Consequently, the deficit to total expenditures ratio narrowed to 34.53% in the year 2019, from 35.11% a year earlier. In addition, the realized deficit to GDP ratio for the year 2019 stood at 10.01%, compared to a target deficit to GDP ratio of 7.59% in the 2019 draft budget law.