May 9 (SeeNews) - A mission of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) praised Serbia for successfully implementing reforms in its railway operator Zeleznica Srbije and urged the country to improve its public investments process so that available funds are properly utilised, the infrastructure ministry said on Wednesday.
The infrastructure ministry made a significant contribution to the successful completion of the previous arrangement with the IMF, the leader of the IMF mission, James Roaf, said as quoted by the ministry in a statement following a meeting with infrastructure minister Zorana Mihajlovic.
According to the minister, the construction sector contributed 25% to the growth of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) in the first quarter, which reached 4.5%.
"Four years ago we had 500 construction sites, today there are close to 30,000 because today the conditions are completely different,", Mihajlovic is quoted saying.
In February, Serbia concluded a $1.32 billion (1.1 billion euro) three-year stand-by agreement wiith the IMF. After three years of effort under the programme, Serbia's economy has turned around, as fiscal accounts recorded a surplus in 2017, economic confidence improved with stronger investment both from foreign and domestic sources, while unemployment is near historic lows, and falling, banks are solid, and non-performing loans are now below their pre-crisis levels, the IMF has said.
($ =0.8355 euro)