* El Salvador’s finance minister,
Nelson Fuentes, has warned that the economic impact of coronavirus (Covid-19) will cost the country US$990m in lost taxes in 2020. In a press conference, Fuentes said that so far this year the country has registered US$556m less public revenue than was planned in the annual state budget, due to losses of US$122.4m in value added tax (VAT), US$209.7m in income tax, and US$143.9m in customs duties, among other taxes. He also noted that El Salvador has secured various emergency loans to mitigate the impact of the pandemic, including US$389m from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), US$550m from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), US$50m from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE), and US$20m from the World Bank. However, Fuentes said that so far only the IMF loan had been fully approved by the national legislature. The latest forecast from the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Eclac) expects El Salvador’s GDP to contract by 3% in 2020, due to the impact of the pandemic.
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