Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri: new Lebanese budget start of ‘a long road’ to economic safety

BEIRUT

The Lebanese draft state budget for 2019 is the start of a “long road” and shows Lebanon is determined to tackle public sector waste, Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri said, after his unity cabinet wrapped up marathon talks on the plan.

The budget finalised by the government on Friday cuts the deficit to 7.5 per cent of GDP from 11.5 per cent in 2018. It is seen as a critical test of Lebanon’s will to launch reforms that have been put off for years by a state riddled with corruption and waste.

“The 2019 budget is not the end. This budget is the beginning of a long road that we decided to take in order to lead the Lebanese economy to safety,” Hariri said in a speech at a Ramadan iftar meal on Saturday.

Lebanon’s bloated public sector is its biggest expense, followed by the cost of servicing a public debt equal to some 150 per cent of GDP, one of the world’s heaviest debt burdens.

The government, which groups nearly all of Lebanon’s main political parties, met 19 times to agree on the budget. Hariri said the budget for 2020 would not take that much time “because now we know what we want to do”.

“The 2019 budget is the beginning of the process of what we want to do in 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023,” he said, according to a transcript of his remarks sent by his office.

The cabinet is due to meet on Monday at the presidential palace to formally seal the process before the budget is referred to parliament.

The budget could help unlock some $11 billion in financing pledged at a Paris donors’ conference last year for infrastructure investment, if it wins the approval of donor countries and institutions.

Hariri said the budget was a message to the Lebanese, financial markets and friendly foreign states that Lebanon was determined to “address the weakness, imbalance and squander in the public sector”.

Measures to rein in the public sector wage bill include a three-year freeze in all types of state hiring and a cap on extra-salary bonuses. State pensions will also be taxed.

A big chunk of the deficit cut stems from tax increases including a 2 per cent import tax and a hike in tax on interest payments.

The government also plans to cut some $660 million from the debt servicing bill by issuing treasury bonds at a 1 per cent interest rate to the Lebanese banking sector.

Fears the budget would lead to cuts to state salaries, pensions or benefits triggered weeks of strikes and protests by public sector workers and military veterans.