Negotiations with 10 banks in Vienna about refinancing of debts of Serbian companies – delays cost too much

If the talks with the International Monetary Fund end in success, the Mission of this institution and the Governor of NBS will have a meeting in Vienna with the managers of ten commercial banks that are the majority owners of business banks in Serbia.

The theme of the meeting will be the possibility of refinancing of debts of local companies to foreign creditors. That debt currently amounts to about 11 billion EUR, while about 1.7 billion EUR needs to be paid in the first quarter of this year.

As it was confirmed yesterday (March 19, 2009), the postponement of repayment of the debts of local companies is not going to be taken in consideration, that is, no grace period will be introduced. The parties will talk about new credit arrangements for the repayment of old debts. This variant is not going to be cheap because the money in the West is very expensive nowadays. In that way, the entrepreneurs will be paying much higher installments for foreign loans next year. Interest rates are about 3% higher than in 2008.