LatinNews Daily - 01 October 2020

* El Salvador’s finance minister, Alejandro Zelaya, has presented the government’s 2021 state budget proposal, for US$7.45bn, up 16% on the US$6.4bn approved for 2020. Zelaya highlighted that the budget would prioritise the areas of health, education, and security, which would collectively receive 40.3% of the total. He said that under this proposal, health spending would total US$1bn, an increase of US$276m; education spending would receive a “historic allocation” of US$1.32bn, representing 5% of GDP, an increase of US$281m; while security spending would increase by US$100.6m, to a total of US$655m. Sceptics question how the budget proposal will be paid for, given that it expects revenue (via tax take and donations) to come in at US$5.98bn. The proposal now goes to the 84-member unicameral national legislature (which is controlled by the opposition Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional and Alianza Republicana Nacionalista) for approval, although opposition legislators have said that they won’t approve further debt.

End of preview - This article contains approximately 170 words.

Subscribers: Log in now to read the full article

Not a Subscriber?

Choose from one of the following options

• Subscribe
• Sign up for a one-time, 14-day trial