Minister of Finance and Economy Mlađan Dinkić announced that the talks on the new arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) would begin in May. In an interview for the latest edition of the Belgrade-based weekly NIN, Dinkić explained that this point was agreed in the talks with the IMF.
The minister expressed mild optimism concerning the new arrangement and said that he is encouraged by the slight recovery of industrial production in December and the January budget deficit which was lower than the planned figure.
NIN learnt from unofficial sources that the talks were delayed at the request of the IMF for two reasons. The first reason lies in the fact that it is impossible to review all the results achieved in the first quarter of the year before April, especially because of the number of tax adjustments.
The second reason lies in the fact that IMF wishes to merge two missions in one regular mission, the first of which performs analyses of the situation in public finance and the other mission which would discuss the new arrangement with Serbia.
Source B92
