DINKIC: Instead of Russia's USD 1 billion loan for our budget, we need twice as low

(Mladjan Dinkic)

Serbian Finance and Economy Minister Mladjan Dinkic has announced that Serbia will seek a USD 500 million loan from Russia for the budget, which is half of the sum negotiated earlier.

Dinkic told Blic that Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov informed him few days earlier that his government was preparing a budget revision so it could approve a loan to Serbia.

- Considering that the budget liquidity is now much better than the last time the two of us talked, which has also allowed us to early repay some expensive loans from the past, we've come to a conclusion that Serbia does not need a loan of USD 1 billion any more - said Dinkic.

According to him, Serbia will borrow money from Russia for the budget only if it is possible to take out a loan under terms that are more favorable than those under which we currently sell Eurobond on the international capital market.