Serbia plans to offer about 5 billion EUR (5.54 billion USD) in loans and subsidies to businesses to help companies cope with the economic impact of the spread of coronavirus, announced President Aleksandar Vucic.

The state will also make a lump sum payment of 100 EUR for every Serbian citizen over the age of 18, or about 5 million people – for the entire electorate, said Aleksandar Vucic.

The recovery program, announced by the president late Sunday, will increase the budget deficit this year, which will be covered by financial reserves and loans. Initially, the deficit was projected to reach 0.3% of Serbia’s economic output.

So far, 13 people in Serbia, out of 7 million people, have died from coronavirus and 741 have been infected. To counter the epidemic, Serbia has put in place stringent measures, including a state of emergency and blocking for all citizens.

According to a plan agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Serbia’s public debt should not exceed 60% of its gross domestic product (GDP), which stands at 52.4% by the end of 2019, Vucic told Serbian media.

“We will have problems, but less than others (countries)”, the Serbian president said, adding that more details would be announced on Tuesday.

Serbia’s foreign exchange reserves amounted to 13.458 billion EUR in February, which is less than the reported 13.694 billion EUR a month earlier.

The country’s economy will miss its 4% growth target in 2020 and face a recession, but Vucic added that Serbia must return to expansion in 2021.

To help the recovery, local banks are expected to “put” around 2 billion EUR into a fund for which the state will provide an additional 1.25 billion EUR. Serbia’s Development Fund to add another 200 million.

“We want to put more money into the economy”, said Vucic, who is also the head of the ruling Progressive Party, which will run in the parliamentary elections later this year.

Under the plan, Serbia will resort to a number of measures, such as corporate bonds to incentivize large companies, including state-owned telecom Telekom Srbije, energy producer Elektroprivreda Srbija and national airline Air Serbia JAT.UL.

Last week, Fitch Ratings reaffirmed Serbia’s long-term BB+ ratings and reiterated its medium-term outlook despite the crisis caused by the coronavirus.

Vucic says the state will use 700 million EUR to pay minimum wages of 30,367 dinars (288.58 USD) and allow tax payments for micro and small businesses to be delayed until three months after the end of the state of emergency to avoid job losses.

To counteract the impact of the coronavirus, the Serbian central bank has already lowered its base rate by 50 basis points to 1.75% and organized currency swaps to add liquidity to the local interbank market.