Lebanon’s budget deficit shrinks

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Lebanon’s budget deficit narrowed to 3 trillion Lebanese pounds ($2 billion) in the first nine months as the government spent less on subsidizing its main electricity generating company.

The deficit shrank from 3.35 trillion pounds in the same period last year, the Ministry of Finance said in an e-mailed report today.

The government spent 492.6 billion pounds less on subsidies for Electricite du Liban, which provides more than 90 percent of the country’s electricity, the ministry said.

Lebanon had a budget deficit of 4.46 trillion pounds last year and a 4.4 trillion-pound shortfall in 2008, averaging about 9.7 percent of gross domestic product. Bloomberg

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