Myanmar parliament approves loans for country's deficit financing

NAYPYIDAW (Xinhua): Myanmar parliament approved to get US$700 million of loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to finance the country's deficit for 2019-20 fiscal year (FY) at a meeting on Tuesday (May 26).

"The country's deficit for this financial year is expected to increase as the government has spent a lot of budgets on sectors that were not included in the initial target plan due to Covid-19 outbreak while the country's income seems to get lesser.

"If the loans from IMF fulfill the needs of the country's deficit, it would be less costly," U Maung Maung Win, Deputy Minister of Planning, Finance and Industry Ministry clarified at the meeting.

"The country's deficit for the fiscal year of 2019-20 is expected to target 6.5 trillion kyats (US$4.6bil) and the government paid 2.9 trillion kyats (US$2.1bil) to finance deficit for the fiscal year of 2018-19," he added.

The parliament representatives made the approval after having a discussion regarding loans on May 22. - Xinhua