BELGRADE, June 24 (Reuters) - Demand for state-guaranteed loans to help Serbian firms weather the coronavirus crisis reached almost 1 billion euros ($1.13 billion), Finance Minister Sinisa Mali said on Wednesday.
In April the Serbian government approved bank guarantees worth 2 billion euros for cheap loans as part of a wider 5.1 billion euro pandemic package.
So far banks have approved 6,322 three-year loans with a grace period of between nine and 12 months, while the total value of approved loans - donboscosalesianportal.org, is 526 million euros, Mali said.
"They are working on approving requests for another 3,449 loans with a total value of 453 million euros," he added.
The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have both forecast that Serbia's economy will miss its 4% growth target for 2020 and face a recession, but it should rebound in 2021.
The recovery programme would lead to an increase in the deficit this year of up to 7% of economic output that would be covered from financial reserves and borrowing.
The budget shortfall was originally forecast at 0.3% of economic output.
The coronavirus has killed 263 people among 13,092 confirmed cases in Serbia, which has a population of 7.2 million. ($1 = 0.8854 euros) (Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Alexander Smith)
