Mali: IMF has confirmed Serbia is successfully carrying out all agreed reforms

BELGRADE - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Executive Board has confirmed the first review of a Policy Coordination Instrument arrangement with Serbia had been completed successfully.

Serbian First Deputy PM and Finance Minister Sinisa Mali said the IMF had confirmed Serbia had successfully implemented all agreed reform goals, the Finance Ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

"We have received those assessments in spite of domestic and global challenges. We have no influence on the global ones - we can only minimise their effects on our economy - but we can influence the domestic ones, and we must do our best not to let internal developments affect the macroeconomic parameters and the hard-earned financial stability that brings us one of the highest economic growth rates in Europe," Mali noted.

He said the IMF projected 3 pct and 4 pct GDP growth for Serbia in 2025 and 2026, respectively, anticipating the growth to accelerate in the second half of the year thanks to government investment programmes and an increase of export capacities, especially in the manufacturing industry.

He noted that the Serbian government had committed to keep the fiscal deficit below 3 pct until 2027 and that it continued that policy.

He said numerous planned infrastructure projects that would boost the national GDP would help Serbia's further development.

"For Serbia, the messages it has received from the IMF are important - that the country's economic resilience to external shocks is valued and that all that is a result of a responsible economic policy," Mali noted.