March 17 (SeeNews) - Montenegro's government said it has approved the borrowing of 15 million euro ($16.2 million) from local lender Prva Banka Crne Gore [MNE:PBCG] to finance budget spending in 2017.
The loan will be part of the funds needed to finance budget deficit this year, the Montenegrin government said in a statement on Thursday.
Earlier this week, the government signed an agreement to take out two loans with a combined value of 20 million euro from the local units of Slovenia's Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB) and Serbia's Komercijalna banka [BEL:KMBN].
The government decided in January to take out loans with a combined value of 450 million euro from domestic and foreign banks to finance budget deficit in 2017.
In December, the Montenegrin government said it expects a budget deficit equivalent to 6.1% in 2017 and 3.6% in 2019, while public debt is forecast to rise to 77.5% of GDP in 2019 before starting to decline. The consolidated revenues in Montenegro's 2017 budget are projected at 1.552 billion euro, while expenditures are expected to reach 1.785 billion euro. The budget deficit is forecast at 233.9 million euro.
($ = 0.928065 euro)