July 25 (SeeNews) - Serbia's government said it plans to complete the sale of a 145 million euro ($169.6 million) portfolio of bad assets managed by the country's Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA) by the end of 2018.
The government will approve a time-bound action plan to resolve part of the DIA portfolio of bad assets by end-2020 through a tendering process implemented in two phases, it said in a statement on the 30-month Policy Coordination Instrument-supported programme agreed on with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), according to a document posted on the website of the Fund on Tuesday.
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Serbia will sell two portfolios of about 145 million euro and 830 million euro of bad assets, respectively, managed by DIA on behalf of the state and bankrupt banks, as agreed with the World Bank, the government said.
The first phase of the disposal will be completed by end-December. The DIA has already engaged consultants to prepare the first phase of the tender process based on the portfolio of bad assets agreed with the World Bank.
Serbia will update, with the support of international financial institutions, its non-performing loan (NPL) strategy by end-September, focusing on measures to accelerate the resolution of NPLs in state-owned banks, the government added.
Last month, Serbia's central bank governor Jorgovanka Tabakovic said the ratio of NPLs in Serbia's banking sector declined to a record-low level of 8.8% of total loans at the end of April.
($ = 0.85504 euro)