Lebanon’s fiscal deficit (Budgetary & Treasury) widened by 75.92% in the first two months of 2020 to around $1.16 billion, compared to $658 million a year earlier. The primary balance (Budget & Treasury) was a deficit of $538 million, in comparison with a deficit of $89 million in the first two months of 2019. In detail, government revenues (Budget & Treasury) fell by 6.84% y-o-y to around $1.68 billion owing to an 8.10% drop in tax revenues to $1.33 billion outweighing the 2.71% increase in non-tax revenues to $250.25 million. The drop in tax revenues came as a result of the 39.97% dip in VAT revenues to $278.03 million and a 37.89% decrease in customs revenues to $127.31 million, eclipsing the 18.76% expansion in miscellaneous tax revenues to $922.69 million. The rise in non-tax revenues, on the other hand came despite some 20.24% contraction in telecom revenues to $66.33 million. Concurrently, government expenditures (Budget & Treasury) (including debt service) rose by 15.27% on an annual basis to about $2.84 billion by February 2020. In fact, general expenditures soared by 21.26% to $2.07 billion, in part owing to a 62.37% increase in budget expenditures over previous years to around $963.62 million, which outweighed the 21.81% drop in transfers to Electricité Du Liban (EDL) to $195.00 million. On the other hand, treasury expenditures sank by 20.43% y-o-y to $147.64 million. Debt service continued to weigh heavily on the government’s finances and grew by 8.93% y-o-y to around $620 million, from $569 million a year before. Consequently, the deficit to total expenditures ratio widened to 40.77% by February 2020, compared to 26.72% in the same period last year.