April 7 (SeeNews) - Bulgaria's parliament said it has adopted changes to the country's 2020 balanced budget that envisage a deficit equivalent to 2.9% of gross domestic product (GDP), or 3.5 billion levs ($2 billion/1.8 billion euro), to meet spending needs arising from the coronavirus pandemic.
The revision proposed by the government ensures enough funds for counteracting the spread of the novel coronavirus disease in the country and limiting the economic impact of the state of emergency imposed due to the disease, the parliament said in a statement just before midnight on Monday.
The changes also include an increase in the maximum amount of new debt that the government is authorised to take on to 10 billion levs from 2.2 billion levs.
Budget revenue is expected to be 2.44 billion levs lower than initial projections as income from taxes will likely fall short of expectations. The revised budget also includes an additional 1 billion levs in spending for measures in support of employment into the budget.
Initially, budget revenue and expenses were both projected at 46.8 billion levs in 2020.
Bulgaria is currently in a state of emergency as cases of the novel coronavirus disease in the country totalled 541 as of Monday.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)