Brnabic meets with IMF mission

BELGRADE - Serbian PM Ana Brnabic met on Monday with an IMF Mission headed by Donal McGettigan as part of the first review under Serbia's current standby arrangement with the IMF, agreed in December 2022.

McGettigan said Serbia was achieving good macroeconomic results and good economic growth despite challenges, and noted that its FDI figures were impressive, the Serbian government said in a statement.

He added that the Serbian economy had proved resilient to external shocks and that, like in other countries in Europe and worldwide, inflation posed the only challenge.

He said the IMF expected Serbian inflation to decline by 8 pct by the end of the year.

He said the implementation of the current arrangement was progressing excellently and that all planned goals had been accomplished to date.

McGettigan especially praised the Iskra project, which implies a centralised system of public sector salaries.

He concluded that the situation in the energy sector was stable but needed continued monitoring.

The standby arrangement aims to maintain Serbia's economic and financial stability, boost the resilience of its economy amid a global energy crisis and encourage sustainable growth, the statement also said.

Brnabic noted that Serbia was achieving good economic results despite numerous challenges and that restructuring of the energy sector was the current priority.

She added that many things needed to change in that regard and that work was underway on a detailed investment plan for the energy sector, which was commended by the IMF representatives.

Brnabic said her government was fighting on a daily basis to exceed the 2022 results and added that it was important to find additional sources of growth.

She said IT exports in 2022 totalled 2.7 bln euros, rising by 45 pct y-o-y.

In January 2023 alone, the industry's exports were up by 42 pct y-o-y, Brnabic said, adding that this was a great potential and that the government aimed to take exports in the sector to 4 bln euros.

She said biotechnology could be an additional source of growth and that the construction of a BIO4 campus to attract investments in R&D projects in Serbia was important in that context, and that efforts would be made to boost the productivity of the Serbian economy through use of artificial intelligence.

Brnabic noted that Serbia was working on digitalising its health care system and that a single information system for education would provide good information for planning investments in the sector.

She also commended the eInvoice and eFiscalisation projects and said they worked well.

Serbia's 24-month arrangement with the IMF expires at the end of 2024.

The meeting was also attended by Serbian Deputy PM and Finance Minister Sinisa Mali.