International Monetary Fund

NBS FX reserves total EUR 10.44 billion at end-April

BELGRADE -- Serbia’s total foreign exchange (FX) reserves amounted to EUR 10.44 billion while net reserves stood at 7.34 billion at the end of April.

This was announced by the National Bank of Serbia (NBS).

The IMF representative for Montenegro, Alasdair Scott, on Sunday said the small coastal republic will have to "refinance certain costs" in coming years after taking out a major loan to start building the Bar-Boljari highway.

At the end of last year, Montenegro’s national debt stood at 1.87 billion euro, or 56 per cent of GDP.

By Katerina Sokou

The International Monetary Fund’s executive board will convene on May 28 to discuss and likely approve the disbursement of its next bailout tranche to Greece.

BELGRADE – The low-interest state-subsidized loans announced by Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic will be set out in a revised budget that should be adopted in July, head of the Serbian parliament’s Committee on Finance Veroljub Arsic has said.

The board of the International Monetary Fund, one of Greece’s three international creditors, is to convene before the end of this month as planned to approve the release of a 3.6-billion-euro tranche of pending rescue funding, the Finance Ministry said in a statement on Saturday, rejecting press reports suggesting the meeting would be delayed.

A spokesman for the International Monetary Fund, one of Greece's three international creditors, acknowledged in comments to reporters late on Thursday that Greek debt is high and added that Greece's eurozone partners had agreed to debt relief.

National Bank of Greece (NBG) became the latest of Greece's four major lenders to successfully tap international markets as prospects of a recovery in the Greek economy lure investors.

LONDON/BELGRADE - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) wants to invest in Telekom Srbija and Belgrade's Nikola Tesla Airport when the two public companies are privatized.

EBRD president Suma Chakrabarti told RTS on Thursday that Serbia has good prospects and that the bank will continue to invest in the country.

Rating agency Moody's has lowered its estimate for Russia's economic output in 2014 to a 1.5-2% contraction, according to its monthly report.

In its March forecast, the agency had put its outlook for the Russian economy at 2%, thus expecting growth.

Bulgaria and Romania are quite often paired up in European and regional powers' approach to the Balkans. They are said to be both wrapped in political, economic and social problems, but usually do not provoke a huge interest from EU politicians.