The Government decided Wednesday to reallocate funds from non-productive expenditures for the COVID-19 crisis efforts.

The Government decided to temporarily ban new employments in the public sector, except for the health sector and other sectors directly involved in the management of the coronavirus effects.

Expenditures for sponsorship and ads in the public sector will be reduced to the minimum, a temporary ban on the procurement of furniture, equipment and vehicles is also enforced. Public enterprises and state-owned joint-stock companies have also been instructed to cut expenditures by 15 percent.

The Government decided to subsidize the interest rate to the European Investment Bank (EIB) for the remaining portion of the loan in the amount of about EUR 51 million, intended for financing SMEs and other priority projects, concluded between EIB and the Development Bank of Macedonia.

The primary objective of this credit line is to secure fresh capital in support to the efforts for overcoming the COVID-19 crisis, which has a direct effect on the operations of SMEs.

In addition, the Government adopted the report on the transfer of funds collected from the foreign aid Compensation Funds to the accounts of the Development Bank of  Macedonia.