IMF, Serbia discuss access to loan

AP - An International Monetary Fund mission agreed for crisis-stricken Serbia to make another draw from a standby loan, officials said Thursday, but warned that recovery is slower than expected.

Serbia opens talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to agree an emergency loan worth up to 2bn euros.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) agrees to lend Serbia 3bn euros (£2.8bn; $4.1bn) to help it through the economic downturn.

An International Monetary Fund mission visits Serbia to decide whether to release the second tranche of a 3bn euros loan.

Serbia may cut one-fifth of the 70,000 employed in the public sector to satisfy the terms of an IMF loan.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) -- Serbia will become a major hub for distribution of Russian natural gas to Europe thanks to the storage and transport capacities of the planned South Stream pipeline, the general manager of Serbia' state energy company said Thursday....

Serbian authorities and the International Monetary Fund were drawing close to an agreement on the terms of emergency loan funds, Economy Minister Mladjan Dinkic said on Friday."I believe that the negotiations will be successful," Dinkic said in a statement, adding that the talks "are going in a good direction."Serbian state television RTS reported that the two sides reached an accord on Serbia's budget for 2010, without introducing an increase of VAT and with a planned deficit of four percent of GDP, half a percent lower than in 2009.

Serbian justice experts on Tuesday challenged the legality of Kosovo's secession, as the International Court of Justice opened hearings into Pristina's decision to break away in 2008. Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic, arriving in The Hague where his country's delegation opened proceedings, expressed confidence that the top UN court would back Serbia's bid to hold on to its southern region.