Fresh after announcing that the 2020 deficit will reach almost a billion EUR, or 8.4 percent of GDP, Finance Minister Fatmir Besimi revealed that the public debt will reach 6.5 billion EUR and surpass 60 percent of GDP.

Besimi was presenting the proposed budget amendments on Telma TV when he acknowledged that the earlier, biggest ever 700 million EUR bond issue was already spent and that the Government will have to issue additional debt to make it through the year. Still, he downplayed the effects of the crisis, saying that it is not his position to express concern about the debt level.