Lebanon’s finance minister assesses the impact of this year’s political turbulence on the economy and maps out his plan to balance public finances as the country gears up for another donor conference. E How badly were the country’s public finances affected by this year’s political upheaval? It had a negative impact on public finances, although the political upheaval had already started making itself felt on the economy before the assassination of [former premier] Rafik Hariri. His death and the ensuing events exacerbated them. The impact manifested itself in a reduction in revenues due to the reduction in economic activity. The various governments at the time did not take the necessary measures to keep the level of the budget deficit stable, i.e. they did not correct the reduction in revenues with a reduction in expenditures. What I did after I became minister of finance was to stabilize the public finances in
