June 14 (SeeNews) - Serbia's finance minister Dusan Vujovic has said he expects the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to revise its projection for the country's budget deficit in 2017 to 1.3% from 1.7%, as revenue is growing faster than planned.
The budget surplus for the first five months of 2017 stands at around 600 million euro and up to 60 billion dinars ($550 million/490 million euro) higher than planned, which reduces the need for borrowing, Vujovic said in a video file posted on the website of public broadcaster Radio Televizija Srbije (RTS) on Tuesday.
"This is chiefly due to the good revenue, generated by both tax and non-tax income and we need to keep it up, while on the expenditure side we need to seek ways to be more efficient," Vujovic said.
An IMF mission is scheduled to arrive to Serbia after ten days to discuss the continuation of the agreed macroeconomic and structural reforms, he added.
Vujovic said in April the country does not need a new stand-by Arrangement (SBA) with the IMF as it is in a sound macroeconomic shape.
In March, the IMF said Serbia's general government deficit had narrowed to 1.4% of GDP in 2016, the lowest level since 2005, and general government debt had declined to 74% of GDP.
(1 euro = 122.384 dinars)