An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission will visit Belgrade on Thursday to discuss with Serbian government officials ways of future cooperation, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement.
The visit was announced at the end of last month by Finance Minister Sinisa Mali, who said Serbia’s present arrangement with the IMF was set to expire next January and that, due to the global situation, a stand-by arrangement could be a discussion topic.
“It would provide an additional dose of security, also for foreign investment. We could draw some IMF funds that would be much more favourable than funds are globally at this time due to the crisis,” Mali noted.
He said Serbia had EUR 2.5bn in state coffers but that it needed to have sufficient funds due to the crisis resulting from the Ukraine war and rising energy prices.
“We have no problems at all, we are paying off all liabilities on time. We are far from the problems other countries have with public debt,” Mali said.
He noted that Serbia’s public debt currently stood at EUR 31.5bn, accounting for under 53% of GDP, but added that the national GDP stood at EUR 60.2bn and would hit an “all-time high” at the end of the year.
Source: Tanjug, Momentum
