Lebanon’s budget: One hurdle is passed, many more remain to be overcome

ENAR

Three months is not a long time, depending on one’s perspective. If you are a rock that has had Mediterranean waves washing up against you for the last 11,000 years, three months are almost nothing. A blink. On the other hand, if you are a silk moth eager to feast on mulberry leaves, three months is more than you can expect to live under any circumstances. And if you are an annual budget, three months are 25 percent of your shelf life. For the Lebanese political process, it was a sort of qualified success to see the 2019 budget move over the course of three months through three stages of its life cycle. Beginning with intense cabinet deliberations throughout May, the draft budget endured scrutiny by Parliament’s finance and budget committee in June. It then underwent a purported final metamorphosis into a veritable law in the second half of July,