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The lower house of parliament on Tuesday approved a rise in the 2020 central state budget deficit to a record 500 billion crowns, in the first of three scheduled readings. That figure, equivalent to around 9 percent of projected GDP, is more than 12 times the deficit agreed before the coronavirus pandemic. Will it be sufficient to shore up the economy, projected to contract by 8 percent already this year? And is the country over reliant on the automotive industry?