Minimal intervention to solve Swiss franc problem

DAVOS - Serbia will act with a minimum state intervention to solve problems related to Swiss franc loans, Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic said during the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos on Thursday.

Speaking for the Reuters' Global Markets Forum in Davos, Vucic said that the Serbian government was negotiating with banks in Serbia to amend loan terms for some 22,000 clients who had taken loans indexed in Swiss franc in the early 2000s, after non-payments of franc-linked debts had risen.

We will do everything we can to help our clients in a way that banks find acceptable, said the Serbian prime minister.

He said that Serbia would not follow the example of neighboring Croatia, which had fixed the kuna rate against the franc at the level of the previous week before the Swiss National Bank had scrapped its cap on the franc against the euro.

We are not doing that with the euro or the dollar, nor do we plan to do it with the franc. The Croats have fixed the kuna rate and their government will have to pay a lot of money because of that, Vucic said.

Photo Government of Serbia