International Monetary Fund

Greece proceeded on Friday with the early repayment of two installments of bilateral loans, as it had long planned, almost halving its financing needs for the next two years, while deflating the cushion of cash reserves, which was designed to decrease after the recovery of investment grade.

The changes to the taxation of the self-employed and freelancers proposed by the Finance Ministry brought to mind a discussion I had in 2012 in Washington with Poul Thomsen, the then head of the International Monetary Fund's mission for Greece and later the Fund's director for Europe.

Greece will next month repay ahead of schedule 5.3 billion euros ($5.8 billion) of loans owed to eurozone countries under its first bailout, and hopes to repeat the move in 2024, Finance Ministry officials told Reuters on Tuesday.

BELGRADE - National Bank of Serbia (NBS) Governor Jorgovanka Tabakovic said on Wednesday Serbia had no plans to draw a second tranche of funds approved by the IMF as it did not need them, and announced a transition from a financial standby arrangement with the IMF to a precautionary one.

Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) have the potential to replace cash, but adoption may take time, said Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

"CBDCs can replace money that is expensive to circulate in island economies," she said Wednesday at the Singapore FinTech Festival event, CNBC reported.

WASHINGTON - In its latest forecast, released on Monday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said the Serbian unemployment rate would be 9.1 pct at the end of this year.

The IMF also said the euro zone average jobless rate was projected at 6.6 pct, ranging widely from 3.5 pct in Germany to 11.8 pct in Spain.

The International Monetary Fund wants to increase contributions by its members by 50% to provide a financing resource to countries that need its help.

BELGRADE - Reputation and trust are earned only through results and we, as the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) and a country, have earned that through the results shown by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) during its second review from October 19 to 31, and we expect this to be confirmed by the IMF Executive Board on December 21, NBS Governor Jorgovanka Tabakovic said on Wednesday.

BELGRADE - Serbian PM Ana Brnabic met on Monday with an International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation headed by Donal McGettigan as part of a second review under an approx. 2.4 bln euro arrangement approved by the IMF to Serbia in December last year in support of an agreed economic programme.

BELGRADE - At a meeting with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Mission Head Donal McGettigan said Serbia had achieved excellent results by strictly complying with IMF recommendations and pursuing the objectives defined under the current arrangement with the institution.