Russia to grant about 1 billion USD worth of loan to Serbia

Russia will grant up to 1 billion USD worth of loan to Serbia for covering the budget deficit and financing infrastructural projects - the Minister of Finance of Russia, Aleksej Kudrin, said today (October 5, 2009).

He said in Istanbul that 350m USD would be set aside for covering Serbia's budget deficit, while the remaining funds would be spent on infrastructural projects, primarily, subway and bypass around Belgrade.

Mr. Kudrin also said that the amount and the terms of the loan would be specified within the next two weeks.

As the Ministry of Finance of Serbia announced earlier, the Minister of Finance, Diana Dragutinović, spoke to Mr. Kudrin on Sunday (October 4, 2009) in Istanbul about Russian loan to Serbia, and they agreed on that occasion that the negotiations would be conducted in October, after the Annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Istanbul on October 6 and 7.

The aid may be granted this year.

Russian daily newspaper "Kommersant" announced today that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia, Vuk Jeremić, said that he expected Russia to grant financial aid to Serbia.

- We expect to get positive response from Moscow. During the forthcoming visit of President (or Russia Dmitrij) Medvedev, we will talk about concrete ways for use of that aid, especially in the domain of investments in infrastructure in Serbia - said Jeremić.