Jihad Azour earlier this month estimated that gross domestic product had grown between 2.5 and 3 percent in 2007.

Azour said on Sunday the economy had achieved growth "that is going to be more than 3 percent in 2007", although it "was greatly less than our aspirations".

Lebanon's political crisis has paralyzed much of government since November, 2006 and left the country without a president for three months. The country's Western-backed governing coalition is locked in a power struggle with an opposition alliance backed by Syria and Iran.

"2007 was a very difficult year politically, in security terms, financially and economically, because of the developments of the oil price and the Euro," Azour said in an interview with Voice of Lebanon radio. Lebanese importers source many goods from the Euro zone.

In a Feb. 15 interview with Reuters, Riad Salameh, Lebanon's central bank governor, estimated real growth for 2007 at around 3 percent.