SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina), December 14 (SeeNews) – Bosnia's Muslim-Croat Federation government said on Monday it adopted a balanced budget draft for next year, setting both spending and revenue targets at 1.747 billion marka ($1.3 billion/893 million euro).
The Federation has a balanced budget of 2.075 billion marka for the current year after the third budget revision made earlier this month.
The government has included in the 2010 draft 335 million marka expected to come from the agreement with the International Monetary Fund and a World Bank credit, it said in a statement.
Yet, the IMF delayed last month the approval of a second instalment of a 36-month $1.52 billion stand-by loan to Bosnia until the middle of January, saying the country must contain public spending within the target set for 2009.
The global lender approved the deal with Bosnia in July, making one tranche of $282.37 million immediately available. The second tranche will be worth around $140 million.
Bosnia started talks in September with the World Bank on a $100 million credit agreement to support budget spending.
The Federation is one of the two autonomous parts of post-war Bosnia, the other is the Serb Republic. The two parts have separate budgets. Bosnia also has a central government and institutions which have their own budgets.
The Serb Republic government adopted last month a 2010 budget draft, setting both spending and revenue targets at 1.6 billion marka, unchanged from the revised fiscal plan for the current year.
Bosnia’s central government adopted a balanced budget of 1.028 billion marka for next year, 1.0% lower than the country's 2009 fiscal plan, local media reported in November.
(1 euro=1.95583 Bosnian marka)