September 19 (SeeNews) - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged the Serbian government to dismiss some 700 employees of state-owned power utility Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) this year to cut costs, local media reported on Tuesday.
The production decline in the Serbian energy sector was the main issue discusssed during a meeting of the head of the IMF mission to Belgrade, James Roaf, with Serbian energy minister Aleksandar Antic, daily Politika reported.
Under its restructuring plan, EPS should lay off a total of 5,000 employees by 2020. Of those, 1,900 were dismissed last year, while a further 700 have to leave by the end of 2017, Serbian public broadcaster RTS said on Monday.
The bulk of the axed jobs will be in the management of EPS, as the lay-offs last year were carried out as part of the voluntary downsizing plan of EPS, daily Blic said on Monday.
Blic also reported that the IMF has called on state-owned gas monopoly Srbijagas to dispose of non-core assets by selling its stakes in chemicals group MSK Kikinda, chemical fertilizer producer HIP Azotara Pancevo and ceramics producer Toza Markovic, Blic added.
An IMF team started a technical mission to Serbia on September 13 to discuss the 2018 budget draft and a possible increase of pensions and salaries. The technical mission will make no assessment of Serbia's economic performance under the country's stand-by funding arrangement with the IMF signed in 2015.
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