BELGRADE (Serbia), April 27 (SeeNews) – Serbia's government has revised the 2020 state budget, increasing the projected fiscal deficit to 381 billion dinars ($3.51 billion/3.24 billion euro) in order to cover the costs of measures aimed at limiting the impact of the coronavirus crisis, it said.
Budget revenues are envisaged at 1.245 trillion dinars, while spending is forecast at 1.626 trillion dinars, the government said in its decision published on Friday.
In 2020, the Serbian government will approve project and programme loans of up to 1.426 trillion dinars, according to the decision.
"This decision shall enter into force on the day of its publication in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Serbia, and shall continue to apply until the conditions for its full regulation by law are met," the government said without providing details about the envisaged deficit-to-GDP ratio.
The decision was published in the Serbian State Gazette on April 25.
According to Serbia's constitution, any changes to the state budget shall enter into force after their approval by parliament. However, the Serbian parliament has held no sessions since the introduction of a state of emergency by the government due to the coronavirus crisis on March 15.
Last week, Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic said the government intends to increase the deficit in the 2020 budget to 7% due to the coronavirus crisis. A deficit of 20.2 billion dinars equivalent to 0.3% of the projected gross domestic product (GDP) was projected in the original 2020 budget approved by 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.
(1 euro = 117.626 dinars)