IMF Mission arrives in Belgrade - Negotiations between May 8th and 21st

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) Mission is coming to Serbia on Tuesday (7 May 2013) to start negotiations with the representatives of the Serbian government and central bank on current economic trends.

As people at the IMF Office in Belgrade told Beta news agency, the plan is that the IMF Mission stays in Serbia for two weeks, meaning that the negotiations will take place between May 8th and 21st.

It was announced previously that the IMF Mission would talk with Serbian representatives about macroeconomic trends and the budget and in case of positive assessment, they would negotiate a new arrangement.

Serbian Finance Minister Mladjan Dinkic confirmed that budget revenues in first four months of 2013 were smaller than planned, primarily due to a drop in tobacco sales resulting from tobacco smuggling.

He announced that prior to the budget revision, the Serbian government would adopt a decision to cut spending by about RSD 30 billion by the year's end.