Commencement of negotiations about European Commission’s macroeconomic aid to Serbia – support worth 400m EUR

The Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia, Božidar Đelić, said today (February 11, 2009) that the Government of Serbia had started negotiations with European Commission about granting of 400m EUR worth of macroeconomic financial support.

Đelić said at meeting "Possible answers to global economic crisis" that the Government of Serbia and European Commission had agreed in October 2008 to start negotiations about EC’s financial support to Serbia as soon as the arrangement with the International Monetary Fund was made.

- In that way, the Government timely reacted on expected shortage of tax incomes, caused by deceleration of economic growth - said Đelić.

- According to the agreement that was reached at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the World Bank will think about increasing the support to Serbia by 300m USD at the annual meeting in April, 200m USD of which would be spent on support to Serbian budget – said the Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia.