October 21 (SeeNews) - An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission and Serbia's prime minister Aleksandar Vucic failed to agree on increasing wages in the public sector and pensions during their first meeting under the sixth review of the IMF's precautionary stand-by arrangement with the country, the government said on Friday.
The IMF mission arrived in Serbia on Thursday and is due to stay until November 1 to review fiscal performance and conclude discussions on the 2017 budget; follow up on progress in the financial sector reform agenda; evaluate progress in key structural reforms; and discuss new structural conditionality for 2017.
So far, the mission has commended Serbia's efforts towards fiscal consolidation, particularly for achieving increased budget revenues, improved tax collection and lower expenditures, the government said in a statement following a meeting between Vucic and the IMF mission.
The two sides are due to continue talks on the increase of wages and pensions in the next ten days, the government added.
In August, Vucic said he would seek approval from the IMF to raise wages in the public sector as well as and pensions backed by stronger-than-planned fiscal performance.
The IMF last visited Serbia September 19-23, to initiate discussions on the 2017 budget and policy priorities of the new government.
It successfully completed the combined fourth and fifth reviews of Serbia’s economic performance under the stand-by arrangement in early September and made available 761.6 million euro ($829.5 million) to the country.
In February 2015, the IMF approved a 1.2 billion euro stand-by arrangement that aims to help Serbia restore public finances’ health, increase the stability and resilience of the financial sector and implement comprehensive structural reforms.
($=0.918058 euro)