The government adopted two support packages in 2020 for people and businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic of a combined size of Lek 45 billion (2.8 percent of GDP) consisting of budget spending, sovereign guarantees and tax deferrals. The first package adopted on March 19, 2020 through a normative act had support measures of Lek 23bn (1.4 percent of GDP) through a combination of spending reallocations, spending increases and sovereign guarantees to support affected businesses. The key measures are: (i) additional funding for health sector in the amount of Lek 2.5 billion (ii) Lek 6.5bn for the support of small businesses/self-employed that are forced to close activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic by paying them minimum salaries (up to two in the case of family businesses with unpaid family members), doubling of the unemployment benefits and social assistance layouts. (iii) Lek 2bn of defense spending reallocated toward humanitarian relief for the most vulnerable which were not used, (iv) Lek 11bn (0.6 percent of GDP) sovereign guarantee fund for companies to access overdrafts in the banking system to pay wages for their employees for up to 3 months with an interest rate capped at 2.85 percent for a maturity of up to 2 years. The government will bear the interest costs. The second package adopted on April 15 2020, includes (i) Lek 7bn (0.4 percent of GDP) fund to pay for a one-off transfer of Lk40,000 to employees of small businesses affected by the pandemic not covered in the first package, employees of large businesses laid off due to the pandemic, and employees in the tourism sector; (ii) a sovereign guarantee of Lek 15 billion (0.9 percent of GDP) to provide loans for working capital for all private companies that were tax-compliant and solvent before the pandemic. The government will guarantee 60 percent of the loans, and interest are capped at 5 percent. As of November 3, almost 98 percent of the overall budgeted direct support measures had been paid out while the take up for the first guarantee scheme was 59 percent and for the second scheme 42 percent. A third smaller support package was adopted on August 13, providing an additional minimum wage to public transport workers who resumed work one month later than the rest. The measure costing Lk135m is accommodated within the existing transport budget.