Finance Minister Rayya al-Hassan said that she sent the 2010 state budget draft to all the ministries in order for them to make amendments on it in the next two weeks before the cabinet begins discussions on it.

According to Hassan, the drafters of the budget were mainly concerned with limiting government expenditures and gradually decreasing the national debt until it is equivalent with Lebanon’s Gross Domestic Product. She stressed the necessity of maintaining the “downward trend.”