A mission from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will visit
Serbia between August 20 and 30 for a second review of its precautionary
stand-by arrangement (SBA) with the fund, the Eastern European country's finance
minister Dusan Vujovic said on Thursday.
In February, the IMF signed off
on the 1.2 billion euro ($1.35 billion) SBA that aims to help Serbia restore
public finances’ health, increase the stability and resilience of the country's
financial sector and implement comprehensive structural reforms.
Vujovic
said in a statement that Serbia's budget deficit has currently reached 30
billion dinars ($279.7 million/249.5 million euro) and that he hopes that by the
end of the year there will be room for renegotiating with the IMF pensions and
public sector wages.
The current deficit is 75 billion dinars lower than
agreed with the IMF, Vujovic added.
An IMF mission visited Belgrade
during April 29-May 11 to hold discussions on the first review of the
SBA.