Lebanon Social Expenditure Monitor (SEM) data are collected from yearly government budgets available from the Ministry of Finance, "Budget Law", for multiple years (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022). The data are compiled based on the ESCWA SEM methodology. The data are budget estimates as the actual expenditures are not available. The real series is constructed by deflating the nominal series by the Consumer Price Index with base year 2014 (Source: WEO 2024). For 2021 and 2022, the CPI is estimated based on inflation figures from the Central Administration of Statistics.
Note 1: In the case of Lebanon, subsidies to fuel and electricity are treasury advances to the electricity authority of Lebanon which do not enter into public budgets from 2018 onwards. Therefore, for comparability reasons over the years, total public expenditure for Lebanon includes subsidies on fuel and electricity. Treasury advances for medicine subsidies are not captured in the monitor due to unavailability of data.
Note 2: The Ministry of Finance website no longer includes the Budget Law document for 2021.
Note 3: In 2022, the exchange rate in the budget is 10,083 LL/$; prior to that it was 1,507.7 LL/$.