Economists: IMF's Financial Support Significant, But Probably Has "Strings Attached"

Milojko Arsic (Photo: PrintScreen)

The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) financial support to Serbia of around EUR760 million can represent significant help, but it has not been granted because of good economic policies, as is being presented in the public, since all countries were granted support for the remediation of consequences of the pandemic, and will probably come with certain conditions, economists told BETA on Aug. 25.

A professor of the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade, Milojko Arsic, stated that this type of financial reserve would allow Serbia, if necessary, to borrow more from the IMF than it used to.

On Aug. 24, the IMF granted Serbia 627.6 million worth of Special Drawing Rights (SDR), which is equivalent to around $890.22 million or EUR759.71 million, while Serbia's quota in the IMF is 0.14 percent.

A professor at the FEFA faculty in Belgrade, Goran Radosavljevic, said that IMF's loans were always conditioned, with limitations pertaining to how a loan is spent, and Serbian authorities were mostly resorting to borrowing through bilateral state agreements, mostly with China lately, which is more expensive but free of limitations about what the loan is used for.