The agreement on the current economic policy and the elements of the 2005 economic policy is the basis for the IMF Board of Directors to allow the country, after they make a positive decision, to draw another loan installment worth some 90 million dollars in December. The installment would be used to strengthen foreign currency reserves, the National Bank of Serbia reported today.
The two sides also reached agreement on the need to reduce the foreign trade debt by reducing the budgetary deficit, to adjust the growth of income to the growth of productivity, and accelerate the restructuring of the economy and privatisation.
Based on the already demonstrated interest in the privatisation of Serbian banks, five banks will be privatised in 2005.
The two sides also agreed that the restrictive monetary policy should be continued next year to keep the macroeconomic stability.
The IMF mission today issued a statement saying that the inflation rate in Serbia and Montenegro, which is now between 12 and 13 percent, should be reduced to a single digit number so that the balance-of- payments deficit be reduced to 12 percent of GDP.