Despite the recent announcement of an agreement reached with one of its creditors, Orion Oil, Congo’s financial situation remains extremely tense. Taking note of the drastic fall in oil prices and the global economic crisis resulting from the shock following the Covid-19 pandemic, the Council of Ministers adopted on 22 April an amending finance bill that sets the budget deficit for this year at 779.7 billion CFA francs (US$1.3 billion), compared with an initially expected budget surplus of 514 billion CFA francs. This was due to a combination of a 50 per cent drop in budget revenue and a 6 per cent increase in overall expenditure, which was due in particular to the efforts made to deal with the pandemic.