Prime Minister Saad Hariri said that Lebanon would be able reduce its budget deficit by improving tax collection which makes up between 23 and 25 percent of the country's GDP.

However, the current rate is less than 20% due to tax evasion; a problem that Hariri's government will have to address in order to lower its deficit-to-GDP ratio by at least 1 percentage this year, as pledged in its policy statement.

“We will have to save some money by stopping some projects that are unnecessary, and at the same time, we need to make sure that we collect more from taxes,” Hariri told The Daily Star newspaper.

The premier stressed the need to make “hard decisions” in order to reach the deficit reduction target, assuring that no projects will be passed if they burden the state's finances.