IMF loans €1bn to Serbia

Serbia has agreed a three-year precautionary loan deal with the IMF worth around €1bn, ending uncertainty that had weighed on the dinar currency.

The Serb government hopes the deal will reassure markets concerned over the Balkan country’s budget deficit and public debt, which have spiralled since the onset of the global crisis six years ago.

The deal, news of which briefly pushed the dinar up from the euro-era lows to which it had plumbed last week, replaces an arrangement frozen in early 2012 over broken promises to limit spending.