May 20 (SeeNews) - An International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission to Serbia has confirmed the lender's 3.5% economic growth projection for the country in 2019, finance minister Sinisa Mali said on Monday.
"The IMF will complete its mission to Serbia tomorrow and it is very important that it confirmed its projection that our economy's growth will be at least 3.5% this year," Mali said in a video file posted on the website of Serbian news agency Tanjug.
Both the IMF and the World Bank expect Serbia to have the highest economic growth rate in the Western Balkans until 2023, lifting its gross domestic product (GDP) per capita to $10,400 from $7,200 in 2018, Mali told a digital banking conference held in Belgrade on Monday.
In 2020, Serbia's GDP is expected to grow by 4.0%, IMF said in the April edition of its World Economic Outlook (WEO) report.
An IMF mission led by Jan Kees Martijn is visiting Serbia to discuss the results of ongoing structural reforms. In July 2018, the IMF approved a 30-month Policy Coordination Instrument (PCI) for Serbia, following the successful completion of a three-year stand-by agreement.