Lebanon's parliament late Thursday (March 29th) adopted a 2018 government budget projecting a slightly reduced deficit of $4.8 billion, AFP reported.
The package, Lebanon's second voted budget since 2005, was approved days before a French-sponsored donor conference to support the country.
The $4.8 billion deficit is a notch lower than the $5 billion that Lebanon, the world's third most-indebted country, approved last year when it adopted its first budget in 12 years.
The first draft for this year's budget projected a $6.7 billion deficit, or three times the amount in 2011, the year neighbouring Syria’s conflict began.
Parliament voted the budget early to set the conditions for the Cedre Conference donor meeting, also known as Paris IV, scheduled to take place in the French capital on April 6th.
