SARAJEVO (Bosnia and Herzegovina), December 2 (SeeNews) – Bosnia's Muslim-Croat Federation government said it revised on Wednesday its 2009 balanced budget for a third time, cutting it by 58 million marka to 2.075 billion marka ($1.6 billion/1.1 billion euro).
“The latest rebalance was prompted by a drop in budget revenue,” the government said in a statement without specifying the size of the decline.
It will now send the budget for approval to parliament.
The Federation revised its 2009 budget, initially set at 1.6 billion marka, first in March and then also in July. It is yet to adopt a budget draft for 2010.
In July, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a $1.52 billion (1.0 billion euro) stand-by arrangement for Bosnia to help the country mitigate the adverse effects of the global financial crisis. As part of the 36-month loan, Bosnia has agreed to keep budget spending next year at the 2009 level.
Two-thirds of the IMF credit will go to the Federation and one-third will be made available to the Serb Republic.
Bosnia has already received one tranche from the IMF loan worth $282.37 million. Last month the global lender delayed the approval of a second installment, worth around $140 million, until the middle of January, saying Bosnia must contain public spending within the target set for 2009.
The Muslim-Croat 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.
(1 euro=1.95583 Bosnian marka)