World Bank approved loan of 34.9m EUR to Serbia – contract signed

The Minister of Finance of Serbia, Diana Dragutinović, and the Head of the Belgrade-based office of the World Bank, Simon Grey, signed the contract today (March 30, 2009) on 34.9m EUR worth of loan intended for the needs of Serbia’s budget.

The loan repayment deadline is 20 years, with the grace period of eight years and the annual interest rate that equals six-month libor.

- The loan is not connected to any concrete project. It is conditioned by the reforms that the government administration introduced in the previous period – Dragutinović said at the press conference.

As she explained, the World Bank approved of the partnership and aid strategy for Serbia in December 2007, and today’s loan contract is the first part of that package.

- We expect the World Bank, as our most important financial partner, to resume cooperation with Serbia and to keep helping the country – the Minister of Finance pointed out.

Grey said that the today’s loan contract was the first contract in a while that the World Bank signed with Serbia.

- It is important to Serbia to receive budget support at the time of the economic crisis – Grey said and added that he expected that the World Bank would grant another loan in 2009 for the budget of Serbia in order to make it easier for the country to alleviate the consequences of the economic crisis in 2009 and 2010.