For your information

Lebanon’s debt closes in on $50 billion Lebanon’s official gross public debt inched closer to $50 billion, reaching $49.9 billion at the end of October 2009, according to the latest available figures from Byblos Bank. This represents a rise of 8.3 percent since the end of October 2008 and is mostly made up of interest payments on debt and over-budget spending by the government. Domestic debt, held mostly by local banks, increased by 14.8 percent over the same period to reach $28.7 billion, while externally held debt decreased 0.5 percent to register at $21.2 billion. Commercial banks continued to hold an increasing amount of the debt, accounting for 58.2 percent of the total value, followed by the central bank at 19.4 percent. Residents of Lebanon held 88.1 percent of the internal debt at the end of October 2009, according to Byblos Bank. The debt of the central bank, the National