business Standard & Poor's Global Credit Ratings (S & P) said Lebanon's budget plan to cut its fiscal deficit to 7.6...
Standard & Poor's Global Credit Ratings (S & P) said Lebanon's budget plan to cut its fiscal deficit to 7.6 percent of GDP this year may not be enough to restore the confidence that has been hit in the heavily indebted country.
Concerns about Lebanon's Standard & Poor's finances pushed the country to a B-rating with a negative outlook on March 1.
"The announcement that the deficit was reduced to 7.6 percent from more than 11 percent last year may not be enough in itself to improve the confidence of depositors and non-residents, which has declined in recent months," Standard & Poor's Lebanon analyst Selim Gupta said by e-mail. .
She added that the failure to achieve the new target is possible, especially as any measures to reduce costs will apply only in the second half of the year.
"We estimate a fiscal deficit in 2019 at about 10 percent," Gupta said. "In the absence of substantial revenue consolidation and cost cutting measures, we expect Lebanon's public debt ratio to rise to more than 160 percent of GDP by 2022 from 143 percent in 2018."
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