Montenegro has made progress in the fiscal and financial sphere, it was assessed at a meeting of representatives of the Montenegrin delegation and the World Bank, and a strong expectation that a second development policy guarantee could be approved at the end of this or early next year.
Members of the Montenegrin delegation have continued talks on approving the other guarantee for development policy at a meeting with the Vice-President of the World Bank (WB) for Europe and Central Asia Cyril Muller, organized within the spring session and this financial institution and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
"It has been stated that Montenegro has made progress in the fiscal and financial sphere and a strong expectation that this arrangement could be approved by the end of this year or early next year," it was stated in the joint statement by the Central Bank (CBCG) and the Ministry of Finance.
The meeting was also about the projects implemented in Montenegro, funded by WB. At a meeting of the Montenegrin delegation headed by CBCG Governor Radoje Zugic and Minister of Finance Darko Radunovic with the Director of the European Department of the IMF, Paul Thomsen, it was noted that CBCG selected the appropriate priorities for the forthcoming period, relating to the improvement of supervision, money laundering prevention measures and strengthening and modernizing the payment system.
Radunovic presented fiscal indicators for the previous year and mid-term projections, stating that in the first two months of this year, budget revenues increased by 18.5 percent compared to the same period last year.
As he said, structural reforms, in particular, those of importance for obtaining another development policy guarantee, continued.
At a meeting with the Dutch-Belgian constituency executive director in the IMF, Antony Delanoy it was discussed the macroeconomic environment in Montenegro, the situation in the banking system and measures of fiscal consolidation.
Members of the Montenegrin delegation said that despite the problem-solving in small non-systematic banks, business indicators were improved, which contributed to the preservation of credit rating.
With the executive director of the Dutch constituency at WB, Koen Davids, the delegation talked about technical assistance programs and challenges in realizing projects funded by this financial institution. The delegation also participated in a regional workshop organized by Thomsen featuring the macroeconomic tendencies in Europe.
"It is noted that we expect a slightly weaker growth than the previous year, but that macroeconomic fundamentals are still satisfactory. A special segment of the workshop referred to the inefficiency of state-owned enterprises, “CBCG and the Ministry of Finance reported.
Text by MINA Business, on April 14th, 2019, read more at Vijesti
