Lebanon’s fiscal deficit (Budgetary & Treasury) widened by 26.90% y-o-y in the first four months of 2020 to around $1.75 billion, compared to $1.38 billion a year earlier. The primary balance (Budget & Treasury) was a deficit of $596 million, in comparison with a surplus of $23 million by April 2019. In detail, government revenues (Budget & Treasury) fell by 9.14% y-o-y to around $3.14 billion owing to a 20.07% drop in tax revenues to $2.18 billion, coupled with a 31.66% plunge in non-tax revenues to $388.91 million. The drop in tax revenues came as a result of the 52.23% dip in VAT revenues to $382.45 million and a 36.90% decrease in customs revenues to $256.90 million, eclipsing the 1.41% expansion in miscellaneous tax revenues to $1,539.50 million. Similarly, the drop in non-tax revenues is mainly attributed to the 38.67% contraction in telecom revenues to $132.67 million. Concurrently, government expenditures (Budget & Treasury) (including debt service) rose by 1.13% on an annual basis to about $4.90 billion by April 2020. In fact, general expenditures soared by 7.56% to $3.38 billion, in part owing to a 34.40% increase in budget expenditures over previous years to around $1.10 billion, outweighing the 23.71% drop in transfers to Electricité Du Liban (EDL) to $386.58 million. On the other hand, treasury expenditures increased by 21.91% y-o-y to $363.71 million. Debt service continued to weigh heavily on the government’s finances, yet fell by 17.67% y-o-y to around $1.16 billion as at end of April as the government opted to withhold the payments of ROL Eurobonds. Consequently, the deficit to total expenditures ratio widened to 35.77% by April 2020, compared to 28.51% in the same period last year.