Billion euros for economic liquidity - Serbian government adopts first set of anticrisis measures

At its session on Thursday, the Serbian government adopted the first set of anti-crisis measures worth approximately €1 billion for the following 12 months, which include soft liquidity loans for companies.

Minister of Finance and Economy Mladjan Dinkic said that the government had also decided to allocate RSD 7.5 million for the municipalities of Cacak and Gornji Milanovac to repair the damage caused by fire.

Speaking at a press conference held after the government session, Dinkic said that the state would subsidize interest rates on loans from commercial banks, adding that out of €1 billion, more than €300 million in loans would be approved by the year's end.

The Minister noted that all interested banks can participate in this program, specifying that the interest rate would be 3.5% per year for the loans with a foreign currency clause, while the loans with a Serbian dinar clause would have an annual interest rate equal to the reference rate of the National Bank of Serbia.

The repayment period will be 18 months and the grace period is set to six months, Dinkic said, adding that companies would be able to request refinancing loans under the same terms.

He stated that it had been proposed at the government session to abolish 104 para-fiscal levies, adding that 14 ministries had got a task to propose at the next session the levies to be abolished and decide whether there should be more of them.

The complete fiscal consolidation program will be unveiled to the public on September 10th, Dinkic stated and added that that plan included a small part of the upcoming budget revision.