May 21 (SeeNews) - Montenegro has received a 250 million euro ($274 million) syndicated loan from commercial banks to cover budget expenditures related to the measures adopted to limit the adverse effect of the coronavirus crisis, a government official said.
The loan will be covered by an 80 million euro guarantee from the World Bank and will be repaid in 12 years, at an interest rate of 3.63%, the head of the public debt department of Montenegro's finance ministry, Dragan Darmanovic, said in an audio file posted on the website of public broadcaster RTCG on Wednesday.
According to Montenegrin media reports, the syndicated loan was extended by Credit Suisse, Societe Generale and OTP Bank.
The government needs an additional financing of between 350 million euro and 400 million euro to cover the expenditure side of the state budget for 2020, Darmanovic said.
"We will continue negotiations with the World Bank, as well as the IMF, the European Commission, domestic and foreign commercial banks to provide the necessary funds," he added.
Last month, Montenegro's economy minister Dragica Sekulic said the government considers proposing a revision of the 2020 state budget next month, as revenues will fall short of plan due to the coronavirus crisis.
Montenegro's budget for 2020 targets a deficit of 50 million euro, equivalent to 0.99% of the projected gross domestic product (GDP), based on revenues of 1.988 billion euro, expenses of 2.038 billion euro and economic growth of 3.4%.
($ = 0.9118 euro)