The International Monetary Fund said its
executive board had completed a review of
Serbia
’s economic program, allowing for the immediate
release of a 360-million-euro ($486 million) tranche of the country’s bailout
loan. The full installment brings the total disbursement of funds under
Serbia
’s 3-billion-euro standby loan to about 1.3 billion
euros, though “authorities have indicated that they will draw only 50 percent
of the purchase available under this review,” the Washington-based lender said
in a statement dated yesterday.
Serbia
is going through its first recession since 1999, when
NATO bombing, aimed at forcing the country’s troops to withdraw from Kosovo,
destroyed most of its infrastructure. With investment drying up because of the
global financial crisis and tax revenues falling, the government turned to the
IMF for a bailout loan. Government spending, especially statements from some
parties in the ruling coalition about pension increases, added tension to talks
with an IMF mission in Belgrade last month. (Bloomberg)