Fiscal deficit at $2.3 billion

2011 budget deficit down on higher revenues from Telecommunications

The treasury deficit in 2011 totaled $2.36 billion, constituting 20 percent of public spending for the year, according to figures released by the Ministry of Finance.

The fiscal balance for 2011, excluding debt servicing costs, reached a primary surplus of $1.65 billion.

The deficit for the year 2010 was $2.8 billion, constituting 25 percent of expenditure for that year.

Revenues totaled $9.3 billion, posting a ten percent increase from 2010. Expenditures stood at $11.6 billion in 2011, up from $11.2 billion for the year 2010.

The breakdown of government revenues shows that total tax revenue stood at $6.5 billion at the end of 2011, and was almost unchanged from the previous year.

However, non-tax revenue, which totaled around $2.3 billion, had grown by 69 percent from their value in 2010. Revenue from government properties rose by almost 94 percent y-o-y, totaling $1.7 billion in 2011.

Revenue from government properties included a substantial transaction of around $1.5 billion listed under Telecommunication Revenues. In 2010, only $633 million was transferred to the treasury from Telecoms revenues, after the then Minister of Telecommunications Charbel Nahas refrained from transferring the telecom revenues to the Ministry of Finance.