Russian loan for Serbian railways to be activated in March

Minister of Infrastructure Milutin Mrkonjic stated yesterday that projects on the Serbian railway network funded from the Russian loan could start in March next year. In a statement, the Ministry of Infrastructure said that Mrkonjic discussed the construction of the Belgrade railway junction, Prokop railway station and the Valjevo-Loznica railway line with a delegation of the Russian state railways, which is on a three-day visit to Serbia.

The aim of the visit is to examine the status of these projects and coordinate conceptual projects so that work could start as soon as possible. Vice President of the Russian state railways Avtandil Gorgiladze underlined that the projects on the Serbian railway network are of great importance for Russia and that the intention is to reach an agreement with Serbia by the end of this year.

The projects on the Serbian railway network should be financed from a €800 million Russian loan for infrastructure in Serbia. A general agreement on this loan was made during the visit of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to Belgrade in October 2009, it is added in the statement.

News source: EMG.rs link: article

Statement by the IMF Staff Mission to Serbia

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission led by Albert Jaeger visited Belgrade during October 21–November 4 to hold discussion with the authorities on the 6th review under the Stand-By Arrangement (SBA). At the conclusion of the mission Mr. Jaeger made the following statement today in Belgrade:

"There are encouraging signs that the export-based recovery of the Serbian economy is continuing. Output growth is expected to reach at least 1½ percent this year and 3 percent next year. However, inflation picked up in recent months, owing to volatile food prices and pass-through to prices from exchange rate depreciation. Inflation is projected to exceed temporarily the upper bound of the end-2010 tolerance band (6±2 percent), returning within the band (4½±1½ percent) toward end-2011.

"Performance under Serbia’s SBA has been broadly on track. All end-September 2010 performance criteria were observed. It was also agreed that the pension law would be re-submitted to parliament over the next few weeks, without material changes to the version that had been submitted to Parliament in June 2010.

News source: IMF link: article

Statement by IMF Mission Chief for Romania

A mission from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) visited Bucharest from October 20 to November 1. Mr. Jeffrey Franks, IMF Mission Chief for Romania, made the following statement at the end of the visit:"We have reached agreement at staff level on the sixth review of the Stand-By Arrangement. Subject to approval by IMF Management and the Executive Board, the seventh disbursement (SDR 769 million or almost €0.9 billion) would become available.

"Preliminary data for the third quarter suggest that the performance criteria were met, with the exception of the ceiling on general government arrears. The government has promised that firm action will be taken to ensure that central government arrears are mostly eliminated for the remainder of the program.
"Economic activity is now stabilizing and we expect growth of 1½-2 percent in 2011 (compared to around -2 percent in 2010). Headline inflation has jumped in recent months due to the effects of the necessary July VAT increase and food price pressures. We expect inflation to peak at slightly above 8 percent at end 2010 before returning within the National Bank of Romania’s target range in the course of 2011. We project a current account deficit of 5-6 percent of GDP for 2010.

News source: IMF link: article