Bosnia and Herzegovina, actually its entities, will surely enter into a new arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). However, no one in Bosnia and Herzegovina still does not know when will the negotiations on a new arrangement be completed and how high will it be, nor when will the first tranche “arrive”.
Only in the Federation of B&H, the “hole” in the budget is around 684 million BAM deep, and together with the deficit in the budget of the RS it exceeds one billion BAM for this year.
The Ministry of Finance of B&H stated that it is uncertain to speak of any conditions at this moment, when B&H has still not submitted the request for a new arrangement and that should be discussed soon, maybe even at the coming session of the Fiscal Council of B&H. The next phase is the phase of agreements and negotiations with the partners.
“In early October and November it will be discussed with the representatives from the IMF about the new arrangement, as well as about the conditions and modality of the arrangement itself. The amount of means for B&H will also depend on the conditions of the arrangement”, said the Federal Minister of Finance Jelka Milicevic.
The resident representative of the IMF in B&H Francisco Parodi is currently out of country and he could not comment on the future arrangement between B&H and this financial institution. However, he is in daily contact with the BH authorities whose reform agenda he considers an impressive vision which the IMF supports both by technical expertise and, if necessary, by providing financial assistance.
According to the opinions of both the representatives of BH authorities and economic experts, the loan of the IMF, which is approved by the Executive Board of this international institution, is the most favorable and cannot be compared with the loans of commercial banks where BH authorities take loans almost on a weekly basis by issuance of securities, in order to provide payments to the budget users. Indebtedness with the IMF exclusively serves as support for the budgets and, although the perception and wishes of the public are sometimes different, cannot be used for investment in, for example, construction of the roads.
(Source: faktor.ba)
