"Serbia wants precautionary arrangement with IMF"

"Serbia wants precautionary arrangement with IMF"

BELGRADE -- The level of Serbia's foreign exchange reserves is sufficiently high so it will not be looking for an arrangement with the IMF "that would imply taking loans."

Instead, Serbia wants a precautionary arrangement, the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) Governor Jorgovanka Tabaković said on Monday.

"That implies that there will be no funds granted and that there will just be a monitoring of measures agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF)," the governor said.

The foreign exchange reserves total over EUR 10 billion, with state foreign exchange reserves accounting for more than 70 percent, or over EUR 7 billion, Tabaković said in a lecture on the impact of international financial institutions on Serbia's monetary policy, delivered at the Military Academy in Belgrade.

The structure of the foreign exchange reserves is much more favorable than in the past, when funds owned by commercial banks accounted for most of them, she said.

Tabaković said that she hopes that inflation will remain within the target of four percent plus minus one percent if this season's agricultural output turns out to be good, specifically, in case there is no drought during the summer, and if the political situation in the wider region does not deteriorate.

Low inflation is a prerequisite for more offers of bank loans denominated in the national currency, she said.

There are plans to amend the law on protecting users of financial services, with new bills on payment services, insurance, as well as amendments to the law on the NBS - which will expand the central bank's authority to act regarding problematic banks - to enter parliamentary...