An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission and the delegation of Serbia started official talks today (August 23, 2010) about the fifth review of the stand-by credit arrangement worth about 3 billion euros.
The official talks started at 9 AM with the plenary meeting in the National Bank of Serbia (NBS).
The IMF mission is led by Albert Jaeger, while the delegation of Serbia consists of Central Bank Governor Dejan Soskic, Deputy Prime Ministers Mladjan Dinkic, Jovan Krkobabic and Bozidar Djelic, Minister of Finance Diana Dragutinovic, and NBS Governor Council Chairman Bosko Zivkovic.
According to earlier announcements from the Government of Serbia and the IMF,
the main topic of the new round of talks is the Law on fiscal responsibility,
which should define how far in debt Serbia may be able to go.
The delegation of the IMF arrived in Belgrade on August 18th and started technical talks about the revision with the Ministry of Finance of Serbia and the NBS one day later.
During the talks, which will last prior to August 31st, the latest fiscal, monetary and macroeconomic trends in Serbia and fulfillment of previously agreed obligations will also be considered.
As people in the Government of Serbia announced, amendments to the Law on pension and disability insurance will not be discussed with the IMF any more because the draft of these amendments have already been forwarded to the Parliament of Serbia.
Serbian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Mladjan Dinkic announced that he would ask that frozen wages and pensions be raised in October, while Minister of Finance Diana Dragutinovic said that that should not be done before 2011, as it had been earlier agreed with the IMF.
Successful revision will make it possible for Serbia to withdraw a new tranche of the loan.
The IMF approved SDR 2.6 billion worth of credit stand-by arrangement to Serbia on May 15, 2009, which is about 3 billion euros.
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