December 2003
Budget deficit cut slips further over the horizon
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The Beirut corniche: more twists and turns
to come before Lebanon's budget is sorted out
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Hopes that fiscal consolidation would
begin paying off for Lebanon in 2004 were dashed by the draft
budget approved by the cabinet in late October.
After more than a month of political infighting, the 30-member
cabinet led by prime minister Rafiq Hariri approved a budget
package that forecasts an increased deficit of 32% on budget
expenditures. An earlier forecast was for a 2004 deficit of between
27% and 30.8%, and the new figure also greatly exceeds the now
overly optimistic 24.7% deficit forecast for 2003. The budget will
see gross debt creep back to the level recorded before the Paris II
lending conference of November 2002, where European and Arab donors
offered $4.4 billion in soft loans to allow the government
breathing space in which to institute reform.
For a country...
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