International Monetary Fund

The IMF issued a report Monday which featured concerns that were far in excess of those entertained by ministers like Ali Babacan, even though the minister – who is most trusted by financial markets – said Turkey was ready for the normalization of monetary policies in developed countries.

Serbia considers law to speed up privatisation

A meeting between troika and Greek government officials in Paris at the beginning of September does not mean that representatives of Greece’s lenders will not then travel to Athens to carry out the fifth review of the country’s economic adjustment program, sources in Brussels clarified Tuesday.

Greeces state privatisation fund is to be overhauled for the fifth time in two years, the finance ministry said on Monday, as it announced plans to seek new management.

The ministry said the terms of the chairman and managing director at the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF) would not be renewed and it would seek new candidates.

There is a culture of household borrowing that was of unseen and unheard dimensions before 2003. Banks give a third of their credit to individuals Turkey, with its state, corporations and individuals, has rapidly learned how to borrow in recent years - something it had previously been avoiding as a culture.

By Alexis Papachelas

Parliament to adopt budget review by mid-September

BELGRADE -- Serbian Economy Minister Dušan Vujović said on Friday that the budget review will be presented to MPs by September 15 at the latest and adopted the same week.

A team of officials from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund concluded a visit to Nicosia, Cyprus, on Friday, for the fifth review of the island-state’s bailout program.

BELGRADE - Serbian Economy Minister Dusan Vujovic said Friday that the budget review will be presented to MPs by September 15 at the latest and adopted the same week.

 Fund remains against horizontal cuts to salaries and pensions

By Katerina Sokou

The International Monetary Fund insists that Greece’s debt needs to be restructured and is waiting for the issue to be discussed this fall in the context of the Greek economy’s next assessment, a spokesman for the Washington-based Fund confirmed on Thursday.