Government adopted loan subsidizing programme for 2010 - 3.5 billion RSD from budget for that purpose

The Government of Serbia adopted the loan support programme for SME and citizens for year 2010 yesterday (January 15, 2010), for the purpose of which 3.5 billion RSD will be set aside from the budget.

The loans that will be approved in 2010 will be the loans for liquidity and investments, consumer loans for citizens and subsidized mortgage loans for new construction. This year's loan support programme for SME and citizens will be changed in the segment that concerns interest subventions for the loans with foreign currency clause because the state will be paying 4% instead of 5% of market interest rate. That means that, according to the current terms, annual interest rate on such loans will amount to 4%, the repayment period is 12 months, while the deadline for repayment of loans for military industry amounts to 2 years.

Entrepreneurs will be able to obtain the loan of up to 20,000 EUR, up to 50,000 EUR worth of loans will be granted to small enterprises, while twice as much will be approved for export deals. Exporters from the group of mid-sized enterprises will be able to get maximum loan of 2m RSD, while up to 8m RSD worth of loans will be granted to large enterprises. Interest rate on Dinar loans will be subsidized with 5%, so that the users will be paying the interest that is 1.5% smaller than the referenetial interest rate of the National Bank of Serbia, which would amount to 8% at the moment. The repayment period for such loans is one year, while the maximum loan of 800m RSD will be granted only to large export companies.

The state-subsidized loans for investments will be granted with or without guarantees of the Development Fund, while subventions in both cases will amount to 3.5% of interest rate. Maximum amount of these loans is 8m EUR for large companies that export major share of their production. The repayment period ranges between 3 and 5 years, with the grace period ranging between 6 and 12 months. Interest rate on the consumer subsidized loans is 4.5% for purchase of "punto" automobiles, tractors, trucks and building machines, the repayment period is seven years, while the interest rate on the loan for procurement of other domestic goods amounts to 6%, and the repayment period is 5 years.

Total of 2 billion RSD will be set aside in the budget for subventions for the liquidity loans, 535m RSD are reserved for the investment loans, while 1 billion RSD will be provided for the consumer loans. Total of 2 billion RSD will be set aside for the subventions for mortgage loans for new construction in 2010. Maximum amount of loans is 100,000 EUR, and the user is to provide the down payment of 5%, the state provides 20%, while the bank finances remaining 75%.

The Government of Serbia also adopted the programme of measures for alleviation of negative effects of the global economic crisis in Serbia for year 2010 in amount of 8.6 billion RSD. The Programme for allocation and use of funds for credit support to SME through the Development Fund for year 2010, in amount of 3.5 billion RSD, was also adopted at the yesterday's meeting, as well as the Programme for allocation and use of funds for subventions in field of stimuli for agriculture and agricultural production in 2010 in amount of 15.4 billion RSD.