January 17 (SeeNews) - Serbia's government plans to repay and not refinance the most expensive loans of its foreign debt maturing in 2018, finance minister Dusan Vujovic has said.
"Such loans, on which we are charged an interest rate of 7.5%, 7.7% or 8%, we should repay them," Vujovic said in a video file posted on the website of public broadcaster RTS on Tuesday.
Serbia can now borrow at interest rates of 1.5% or 2%, instead of 8%, Vujovic said, speaking on the sidelines of the Euromoney Central & Eastern European Forum 2018 in Vienna.
In December, Vujovic said the government aims to reduce public debt-to-GDP ratio to below 56.3% by 2020. In this way, Serbia will meet the euro convergence criteria under which the debt-to-GDP ratio must not exceed 60% of GDP, Vujovic said at the time.
Serbia's central government debt decreased to 24.3 billion euro ($29.8 billion) at the end of October from 24.82 billion euro at the end of 2016, according to the most recent data available from the finance ministry.
($ = 0.816727 euro)