IMF Mission Arrives in Belgrade

A delegation from the International Monetary Fund has arrived in Belgrade to continue talks regarding the third revision of its stand-by arrangement with Serbia.

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic said that the Serbian government would show at the talks its readiness to fulfill all obligations agreed to in recent talks with the international financial institutions, particularly the issue of pensions.

"In addition to pensions, a central theme of the discussions will be the implementation of rationalisation measures, which the Serbian government decided to implement during the last visit of the International Monetary Fund," Dejlic said at a press conference in Belgrade on Monday.

The delegation from the International Monetary Fund, IMF, headed by its chief Albert Jaeger, will stay in Serbia until February 23 to hold talks with various technical experts from the Serbian government and the  National Bank of Serbia.

Within the standby arrangement, which the IMF granted on May 15, 2009, Serbia approved a loan of €2.9 billion for the strengthening of its foreign currency reserves. A total of €1.12 billion has been withdrawn in the past two tranches. Withdrawal of the third tranche of credit, which totals €350 million, depends on the new report of the IMF Mission.

Serbia has agreed to reduce expenditures for wage payments, i.e. to freeze incomes and pensions in 2010 and also to dismiss redundant employees in the public administration and to adopt a new law on pension and disability insurance.

The IMF representative in Serbia, Bogdan Lisovolik, said last week that it was too early to say whether the Serbian government was in compliance with all of the provisions of the agreement with the insitution.

"We hope that the third revision can be completed successfully," Lisovolik said.