March 13 (SeeNews) - Montenegro's government said it signed an agreement to take out two loans with a total value of 20 million euro ($21.3 million) from the local units of Slovenia's Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB) and Serbia's Komercijalna banka [BEL:KMBN].
NLB will lend 15 million euro and Komercijalna banka will provide 5 million euro funding to the state which will be used to cover budget expenditure, the Montenegrin government said in a statement on Friday.
The loan bears an interest rate of 3.9 percentage points above the benchmark Euribor rate and will be repaid in 60 months, deputy prime minister Milutin Simovic said in a video file posted on the government's website.
The government decided in January to take out loans with a combined value of 450 million euro from domestic and foreign banks to finance budget costs in 2017.
Last month, the government said it approved an agreement between the finance ministry and Societe Generale Montenegro for a long-term loan worth 15 million euro.
In December, the Montenegrin government said it expects a budget deficit equivalent to 6.1% in 2017 and 3.6% in 2019, while public debt is forecast to rise to 77.5% of GDP in 2019 before starting to decline.
The consolidated revenues in Montenegro's 2017 budget are projected at 1.552 billion euro, while expenditures are expected to reach 1.785 billion euro. The budget deficit is forecast at 233.9 million euro.
($ = 0.9371 euro)
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