BELGRADE, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday said Serbia continues with strong economic parameters, and that the budget for 2018 can include increase of salaries in public sector and pensions.
Representatives of the IMF and Serbian government held a press conference to reveal conclusions of IMF's 8th and final revision of a 1.2 billion euro (1.39 billion U.S. dollars) stand-by arrangement.
IMF said Serbia's economic growth will continue, despite slowing down in the first half of this year due to problems in production, but that reforms should be continued.
Despite drought and lower production of electricity that decreased the estimated growth of GDP for this year from 3 to 2 percent, IMF mission chief James Roaf said that the conclusions are that "activities in Serbia remained strong, supported by strong growth of export, strengthening consumption and investments."
Serbian Finance Minister Dusan Vujovic said the direct result of economic reforms is the decrease of the share of foreign debt in GDP from 75 to 65 percent, while interest rates on international financial markets have in the past three or four years decreased from 5.5 percent to current 1.3 percent.
He stressed that Serbia should secure sustainability of these reforms, finish up with structural reforms as well as those that will secure long-term growth of public income and efficient spending.
If the IMF board approves the revision, Serbia will have another 119.4 million euros of the 1.2 billion euros loan at its disposal. Serbia however did not use the money from the arrangement so far, but retained a possibility to do so in case country's balance of payment needs it.
In order to fulfill main objectives of the 2014 economic program between Serbia and the IMF, Serbian government had to introduce fiscal consolidation measures such as cuts in public sector spending and aid to state-owned enterprises.
