IMF mission coming to Serbia today: Negotiations are starting

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An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission is coming to Belgrade to discuss future ways of cooperation with representatives of the Government of Serbia, the Ministry of Finance has said.

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This visit was announced at the end of last month by Minister of Finance Sinisa Mali, who said that the current arrangement with the IMF expires in January 2023, and that one of the topics of the conversation could be a "stand-by" arrangement - due to the global situation.

"That would mean an additional dose of security for foreign investments as well. We could draw some IMF funds that are much more favorable than they are now in the world, because of the crisis," said Mali.

He explained that the state currently has 2.5 billion euros at its disposal, but that it must have enough money in the account because of the crisis caused by the war in Ukraine and the increase in energy prices.

"We don't have any problem, we pay off all obligations on time. We are far from the problems that other countries have with public debt," Mali said.

He recalled that Serbia's public debt now is 31.5 billion euros, which is below 53 percent of GDP, but added that our GDP is 60.2 billion and at the end of the year, it will be "the highest in history".

(Telegraf Biznis)