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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

IMF praises resilience of Serbian economy in challenging times

Belgrade, 5 April 2023

The Ministry of Finance stated today that the Mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed the first review of the current stand-by arrangement with Serbia, which started to be implemented in December 2022 and lasts for 24 months.

The statement reads that all goals for the given period have been met so far, and it is planned that the IMF Board of Directors approves the first review of the arrangement in June.

After two weeks of successful talks with representatives of the IMF, led by new Head of Mission Donal McGettigan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Sinisa Mali said that this institution is satisfied with the progress of the programme, as well as the state of the Serbian economy, which has shown resilience in challenging times.

According to him, the praise of the IMF, as one of the most important financial institutions in the world, gives credibility to our economic policy and shows that we are on the right track.

He specified that IMF representatives praised our macroeconomic results, with special emphasis on the volume of foreign direct investment, which is at its record level, and pointed out that our economy has proven to be resistant to external shocks.

Now our only challenge is inflation, and we expect it to be halved by the end of the year, he pointed out and added that in this context further good coordination of fiscal and monetary policy is important to us.

Mali reiterated that the government's absolute priority at the moment is the restructuring of the energy sector, which is an important part of the arrangement with the IMF.