Serbia and the IMF reached an agreement

Belgrade, June, 01. 2010 (Serbia Today) - The Serbian government and the IMF have reached agreement in a talks on the fourth revision of the stand-by arrangement, announced the Minister of Finance Diana Dragutinovic on Thursday. Serbia will now be able to use another tranche in the amount of EUR 380mn, with the loan worth a total of EUR 2.9bn. Finance Minister also noted that the slowing economic growth saw the projected GDP rise from two to 1.5 percent for this year, and from four to three percent for 2011.  The minister also told reporters that public sector salaries and pensions would remain frozen this year, but that those who are paid from the budget would receive bonuses in the second half of 2010.  Dragutinovic announced that tax system reforms would start on January 1, 2011. The visiting IMF mission also discussed the issue of legislation related to fiscal responsibility as they were meeting with Serbian officials. Serbia has so far withdrawn approximately EUR 1.3bn of the IFM loan.