Bosnia to borrow additional 750 Million Euros from IMF soon

The chairman of the Council of Ministers, Zoran Tegeltija, stated that Bosnia and Herzegovina is asking the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to conclude a three-year arrangement in the amount of 750 million euros to mitigate the negative consequences of the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

Tegeltija said the funds would be used to support the country’s economic recovery in 2021, while preserving macroeconomic stability, currency board stability and maintaining debt, Avaz writes.

He announced that the IMF Mission will conduct a virtual mission for BiH in the period from November 19 to December 8, with the aim of reaching an agreement on the arrangement.

According to Tegeltija, the main goals of the program are to save and improve the quality of life of citizens by mobilizing sufficient resources in the health sector, temporary support to the income of citizens and companies, strengthening the resilience of the financial sector and improving growth in the medium term.

”In the second phase, when the recovery after the pandemic begins, the focus of the program will shift to structural reforms to support economic transformation, which will include accelerating capital projects, increasing spending efficiency, and reducing vulnerability to corruption by improving oversight and management in public enterprises, introduction of e-government, fiscal transparency and better practices in the field of public procurement,” said Tegeltija for “Vecernji List”, edition for BiH.

He stated that the goals of the arrangement are twofold – remediation of the shock caused by the coronavirus pandemic in the near future and support recovery through structural reforms in the medium term.

”The new arrangement would mean a lot in this very challenging time for BiH, and it would be used to overcome all the problems that the pandemic brought with it,” Tegeltija concluded.