At the sitting held on 13 October, the Finance Committee members considered in principle the Bill on the regulation of obligations of the Republic of Serbia toward the International Monetary Fund under allocation of special drawing rights granted by Board of Governors resolutions no. 63-4 and no. 52-4, submitted by the Government of the Republic of Serbia.

The sitting was attended by representatives of the National Bank of Serbia and State Secretary at the Ministry of Finance Vuk Djokovic who briefly outlined the Bill for the Committee members. He stressed that the IMF had granted this type of funds to all member countries due to the effects of the global economic crisis. Serbia was granted 338 special drawing rights currently amounting to about 420 million EUR, considering that the value of 1 special drawing right is 1.08 EUR. He stressed that these were not the funds that the IMF had already negotiated with Serbia, drawn by the National Bank for the country’s foreign currency reserves, but special funds used to raise liquidity and for budgetary purposes. The conditions of the loan are very favourable, the interest rate today amounts to 0.26%, and the due date is not stipulated.

Following a short discussion, the Committee members accepted the Bill in principle by a majority of votes.

The sitting was chaired by Zoran Krasic, Committee Chairman.