According to the Ministry of Finance’s recently published public finance monitor, public personnel costs reached LBP 175.23 trillion (~$1.96 billion) in 2024 compared to a pre-crisis level of ~$6.73 billion in 2019. This drop can be attributed to the frantic depreciation in the value of the Lebanese pound, noting that the government has tried to alleviate the burden of the crisis by granting public sector employees temporary additional payments (not included in the basic salary) under the label of social assistance. In details, the number of these additional payments most recently attained four starting the month of December 2024 and accordingly are not fully reflected in the aggregate cost for the year 2024. Personnel costs can be broken down into three main constituents, namely “salaries, wages, and social benefits” (encompassing basic salaries, indemnities, allowances, and others), “retirement and end of service compensations”, and “transfers to public institutions to cover salaries”.

Salaries, wages, and social benefits, which constituted the bulk (71.47%) of public servants’ costs attained LBP 125.24 trillion in 2024 ($1.40 billion) versus a pre-crisis level of ~$4.00 billion in 2019 while retirement and end of service compensations, which accounted for 22.60% of total public servants’ costs, leveled at LBP 39.60 trillion ($442 million vs a pre-crisis level of $2.43 billion). Transfers to public institutions to cover salaries (5.93% of total personnel costs) reached LBP 10.39 trillion (~$116 million) in 2024 compared to a pre-crisis level of $300 million in 2019. It is worth noting that total personnel costs constituted about 56.54% of the government’s primary expenditures in 2024 compared to 59.28% in 2019.