November 4 (SeeNews) - Following are some of the main stories in the online versions of Serbian media on Wednesday morning. SeeNews has not verified these reports and cannot vouch for their accuracy.
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- The size of Serbia's economy in 2009 will reach 68% of the gross domestic product (GDP) posted in 1989, the President of the Serbian Association of Economists, Dragan Djuricin, said. Last year, Serbia's GDP rose to its highest level since the violent break-up of former Yugoslavia, reaching 74% of the 1989 level, Djuricin also said.
- The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will lend Serbia between 400 and 500 million euro next year and the bulk of it will be used to finance infrastructure and energy projects, EBRD Serbia Director Hildegard Gacek said. Serbia will experience a very positive upturn in foreign direct investment inflows in 2010, Gacek also said.
BLIC
- Serbia will change the eligibility criteria for early retirement by the end of this year under its funding arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), unnamed sources said. The IMF wraps up on Wednesday its combined second and third review of the country’s performance under its 3.0 billion euro aid deal signed in March. Serbia must slash spending, the bulk of it going to its pension system, in order to qualify for tranches totalling 1.4 billion euro.
EMPORTAL
- The shareholders of Serbia’s oil monopoly NIS, majority owned by Russia’s Gazprom, have chosen PricewaterhouseCoopers as the company’s auditor for its annual 2009 financial report, NIS said. It replaces KPMG Corp Fin which was the company's 2008 auditor.
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