April 24 (SeeNews) - Serbia's government intends to increase the deficit in the 2020 budget to 7% from originally planned 0.3% due to the coronavirus crisis, president Aleksandar Vucic said.
"We will try to limit the deficit to no more than 7% and this will be the smallest deficit in the region," Vucic said in a video file posted on his personal YouTube channel on Thursday.
The government will propose to revise the state budget on Friday, Vucic said.
A deficit of 20.2 billion dinars ($185 million/172 million euro) equivalent to 0.3% of the projected gross domestic product (GDP) is projected in the 2020 budget approved by Serbia's parliament in November
In the first two months of 2020, Serbia's budget was in deficit of 618.3 million dinars, compared to a surplus of 22.2 billion dinars in the like period of 2019, according to finance ministry data.
The Serbian government allowed on Monday the reopening of some small businesses and green markets in an easing of the coronavirus lockdown.
(1 euro = 117.619 dinars)