Lebanese budget 2027: Behind the balanced appearance, the same old weaknesses

Salary supplements to defuse social unrest, reallocated funds to absorb their cost and a deficit still announced at zero: The 2027 budget draft, adopted Thursday by the Council of Ministers, continues the main trade-offs of recent years. The state plans to spend more on its employees and operations, without any comparable improvement in public services. Signed by the president and sent the same day to Parliament, on the last day of the constitutional deadline, the finance bill totals 615 trillion Lebanese pounds, or about $6.9 billion.Under pressure from social and union mobilization and the threat of strikes, the government included new salary and social expenditures in the draft. Their financing will rely on credit transfers, a withdrawal from the budget reserve, endowed with $261 million, and improved collection of existing or already...