International economics

The European Commission and Greece agreed on Friday on how 26 billion euros of structural and investment funds will be used between 2014 and 2020.

“The new National Strategic Reference Framework [NSRF] can act as a catalyst for growth at a crucial time for the country,” said Development Minister Costis Hatzidakis.

Remittances - money sent by Bulgarian migrants to family members back home – have reached BGN 12.2B in the past 10 years.

BELGRADE - The World Bank (WB) could approve to Serbia grants-in-aid worth several hundred thousand dollars for the repair of the damage, said World Bank Country Manager for Serbia Tony Verheijen on Tuesday.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund, has called the economic policy implemented in Greece during the crisis “unbearable.”

The first estimate for the euro area trade in goods balance with the rest of the world in March 2014 gave EUR 17.1B surplus, compared with EUR 21.9B in March 2013.

BELGRADE - Inflation rate has been within the limits of the target rate since October 2013, and we are on the right path to preserve the inflation rate at 4 per cent in the mid-term period, Governor of the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) Jorgovanka Tabakovic stated in a release.

IMF economist Nadeem Ilahi, who led a team from the IMF visiting Tirana from April 30 to May 13, on Tuesday said the country's fiscal performance was in line with programme targets in the first quarter of 2014.

“The authorities remain committed to further fiscal consolidation in 2015 in order to begin to reduce public debt as envisaged under their economic program,” Ilahi noted.

BELGRADE - Almost every fourth person in Serbia, or 24.6 per cent of the population, is at risk of poverty, while those under the age of 18 fall in the most vulnerable category, indicate the data published in the latest issue of monthly Macroeconomic Analyses and Trends (MAT).

Ukraine has received the first tranche of USD 3.2 B from the IMF aid program, reports the central bank. 

The bank said the first tranche was received on Tuesday. More than $1 billion went to the bank's foreign currency reserves and the rest to the state budget, a spokesman said.

BELGRADE - The level of Serbia's foreign exchange reserves is sufficiently high and the country will not be looking for an arrangement that would imply taking loans, but for a precautionary one, the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) Governor Jorgovanka Tabakovic said on Monday.