| "First IMF control in February" |
| 6 November 2009 | 12:09
| Source:
Tanjug |
BELGRADE --
NBS Governor Radovan Jelašić stated on Friday that the first IMF control of the agreement with the Serbian government will be carried out in February.
By then, the central bank chief continued, a program for the pension system reform should be set up, "which is crucial".
"I hope that the scenario we have seen so many times will not happen again – we signed, but we meant something entirely different. With these programs, which imply a mid-term reduction of public expenditures, we have not had positive experience so far. I sincerely hope that this time it will be different and that we will completely honor what we signed," Jelašić said in an interview published by Belgrade daily Večernje Novosti on Friday.
He pointed out that Serbia has made a commitment that salaries and pensions will remain frozen in 2010, that in 2011 pensions will be indexed with the rise of retail prices and with the realized GDP growth over 4 percent, and that not more than 10 percent of the GDP will be allocated for them.
"Now we have to find a way to accomplish this," Jelašić added.
Jelašić underscored that, owing to the arrangement with the IMF, Serbia will pay only a 1.5 percent interest to this institution, and the credit enables Serbia to take out additional favorable loans from the World Bank and the EU, for budget purposes.
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