The Council of Ministers approved the fourth amendment of the normative act for the 2020 budget at its last meeting.

The changes of the normative act include some important reallocations, Minister of Finance and Economy Anila Denaj said in a press release.

“First, a fund of Lek 3.4 billion is allocated for the end-of-year bonus of pensioners, where the beneficiaries are: 932 people in family pension and over 8,045 other people in early retirement or who receive special financial treatment,” Denaj said.

The government has also allocated additional funds for the health and social protection sector, in the amount of Lek 1.4 billion, Denaj said, adding that Lek 400 million will go to hospitals to cope with the situation created by Covid-19.

The budget has allocated a Lek 1 billion for the economic assistance and disability scheme.

The normative act also provides for additional support for infrastructure and energy, and specifically to support water sector reform. The amount to support this reform goes to Lek 8.5 billion.

“With the last normative act we reallocate Lek 2.9 billion in payments for about 30 projects, which have advanced with the works and are implemented by the relevant agencies and municipalities. Water system reform is a priority. For 2020, 51 urban centers and 500 villages have benefited from investments,” Denaj noted.

To assist the sector, the government has also provided additional funds in the amount of Lek 420 million for the subsidy of country’s water supply and sewerage companies.

“We also allocated Lek 200 million for expropriation expenses and settlement of obligations in the infrastructure sector.”

Denaj said that in the last amendment of the normative act do not change the macro-fiscal parameters and also the forecast of income and debt remains the unchanged.

“The normative act does not bring changes to the entirety of fiscal parameters and macroeconomic indicators for 2020, provided in the normative act of July. Forecasts for the impact of Covid-19 on the economy still remain at levels of a negative impact of 6.1%.

Budget deficit is set at the level of Lek132.9 billion or about 8.4% of gross domestic product (GDP).

“Economic growth is projected at 5.5% in 2021 and is expected to converge around the 4% level over the medium term. The budget deficit for 2021 is planned to be at the level of 6.5% of GDP,” Denaj concluded.