President of the Republic, General Michel Aoun, kicked off Monday's cabinet session by making clear that discussions were strictly devoted to the 2018 draft state budget.
"We must intensify meetings for its swift approval, to be later referred to the House of Parliament," the President said.
"Budget deficit entails strict measures to be reduced because continuing those massive expenditures will only increase it," he added, pointing out that the electricity deficit was still very high.
"LBP 2100 billion pounds have been allocated for the electricity sector during the year 2018, which makes about 8 percent of the total budget. This is subject to change because it is directly linked to the price of oil barrels, which is increasing globally," Aoun explained.
Moreover, the president noted that the demand for housing loans had surged after the approval of the salary scale.
"Stagnation in the real estate sector made the price of apartments drop, so some resorted to buying another apartment; this has to be addressed via coordination between the Ministry of Social Affairs, which is the Ministry of Guardianship, and the Lebanese Central Bank and other banks that feed such loans," Aoun added.
For his part, Prime Minister Saad Hariri said that he would hold a series of cabinet meetings to finalize debates over the draft state budget of 2018.
In this context, he stressed the need to approve reforms and maintain the public debt ceiling, adding that this entailed a positive response to the memorandum on the reduction of the budget by 20%.
Later, Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil outlined the guidelines for the 2018 draft state budget.
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