November 26 (SeeNews) - Serbia has completed the hedging of a loan extended by the Abu Dhabi Development Fund (ADFD) in 2016, swapping liabilities to euro from UAE dirhams, the country's finance ministry said.
The transaction allowed the finance ministry to reduce the annual interest rate of the loan to 0.96% from 2.25%, resulting in cost savings of about 26 million euro ($29.3 million), the finance ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
The Abu Dhabi Development Fund extended in 2016 a $1 billion loan to Serbia for budget support.
The transaction represents the fourth hedging of liabilities carried out by Serbia since December 2020, in accordance with the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (IDSA) standards.
The transaction previously converted debt initially agreed in US dollars and Chinese yuans to euro, reducing the average interest rate of foreign debt to 2.55% from 5.7%.
($ = 0.88872 euro)