Agreement between Russia and Serbia on loan of 200m USD for budget deficit

- Russia plans to grant the loan of 200m USD to Serbia at the beginning of 2010 - the Deputy Russian Minister of Finance, Dmitrij Pankin, announce in Moscow.

According to AFP, Pankin said that the delegations of Russia and Serbia had been "negotiating" and "agreed on the principles of the loan's parameters", and he added that the agreement on that could be signed in 2009.

According to the words of Pankin, Serbian side does not have enough time for realization of the procedures that are necessary for the agreement to be put in effect by the end of this year, but it will be happy if the agreement is put in effect in early 2010.

- Serbia should first ratify the agreement, which takes time - said the Deputy Russian Minister of Finance, Dmitrij Pankin.

The Minister of Finance of Serbia, Diana Dragutinović, said on November 27 that the negotiations on Russian loan to Serbia were in progress in Moscow.

The first round of the negotiations about the terms of Russian loan of 1 billion USD to Serbia, 200m USD of which are intended for the budget deficit, was held in Moscow on October 29 and 30.

According some earlier announcement, the remaining share of 800m USD is intended to support to the budget and financing infrastructure, primarily railway projects in Serbia.

The agreement on Russian loan to Serbia was reached by the presidents of Serbia and Russia, Boris Tadić and Dmitrij Medvedev, during the visit of Russian president to Belgrade on October 20th.