ABU DHABI: Lebanon’s Finance Minister Mohammad Safadi said the 2012 government budget will increase by roughly 15 percent. “The budget will increase by 15 percent roughly. Our deficit will be not more than $3 billion at best.

So we'll be borrowing," Safadi told Reuters on the sideline of a conference for Arab Finance Ministers in Abu Dhabi. He did not give further details but said he hoped to present the 2012 budget to the Cabinet by the end of September.

Lebanon’s 2011 draft budget, presented to the Cabinet last September, put spending at LL19.77 trillion ($13.1 billion), projecting a deficit of $3.6 billion.

“Our expectations, [inflation] will not be less than 3 percent next year. But we are expecting growth of not less than 4 percent real GDP growth in 2012,” Safadi said.