Central bank Governor Jorgovanka Tabaković believes that the resumption of talks will lead to the restoration of a precautionary arrangement with the IMF. According to her, Serbia needs the IMF arrangement as a guarantee that the country is safe for investments.
“I am convinced that the resumption of talks in May will lead to the restoration of the arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). We do not need another financial arrangement, but rather a precautionary arrangement, which would be an added guarantee for investors that Serbia is a safe country for investments, with a sustainable economic policy, and capable of meeting its obligations by maturity dates,” the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) governor told Belgrade-based daily Večernje novosti.
Presenting the most important goals of the NBS, Tabaković said she expected that, by the year’s end, the inflation would drop to the target band and stabilize at a low level.
“That way the NBS would help economy increase production and investment activity and citizens keep their purchasing power in the best possible way,” she added.
“For the inflation to reach the planned band of around 4 percent +/- 1.5 percent, the state needs to carry out thoroughly the fiscal consolidation program, which it passed, and keep deficit within the planned frame, and adopt a program of agricultural policy measures so as to tackle the volatility of food prices, which had a decisive effect on the inflation rate in 2012,” the central bank head noted.
She said that the NBS would stick to a managed floating exchange rate regime, which had been adjusted to the policy of targeted inflation, with the aim of adjusting the real demand with the available foreign money, with the least possible interference of the NBS in the foreign exchange market and the least possible spending of foreign currency reserves.
Speaking about the fact that possible snap elections would slow down Serbia in economic terms, Tabaković said that irrespective of elections, the NBS would focus on meeting its goals that were set by the laws, on preserving price and financial stability.
Source B92