The NBS Head Office Building was built from 1888 – 1890, on the basis of blueprints designed by Konstantin Jovanovic (Vienna 1849 – Zurich 1923), son to distinguished artist Anastas Jovanovic...
15/10/2020
Governor Jorgovanka Tabaković, serving also as Serbia’s Governor to the IMF, attended today plenary meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee (IMFC) within the Annual Meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, taking place in virtual format this year due to the current health situation. It was assessed that the global economic outlook is improving, but that there are differences across countries, meaning that the recovery is partial and uneven. It was concluded that we must work together to support the most vulnerable countries and that now is the time to also build a more resilient future. Policies must restore confidence, support jobs, and boost growth. The IMFC’s meeting was attended by the top officials representing their countries in these financial institutions.
Further, Governor Tabaković attended the Swiss Constituency meeting, where it also took an active part. She acquainted other members of the Constituency with the fact that in Serbia already in March we had set up a crisis response team for economy, led by President Vučić. Our actions remained coordinated – we adopted a huge package worth over 12% of GDP. The speed of the response and the scale of the package played the key role in preventing the spillover of the negative effects of the pandemic on the labour market and production capacities. The IMF assessed that the robust, timely and comprehensive package supported domestic demand and prevented a fall in business and consumer confidence at times when global pessimism was rampant.
The NBS kept a close eye on all market participants, trimmed the key policy rate, provided liquidity of needed maturity and in necessary currencies, prescribed the moratorium on loan repayment, provided other forms of loan repayment relief and supported lending activity. Serbia maintained excellent access to the global financial market at times when uncertainties were running high. It maintained full price, macroeconomic and financial stability, this being one of the reasons why long-term investors continued to have confidence in Serbia, as reflected in persistently high FDI.
For all these reasons, in August Serbia’s production in total industry and manufacturing was above the pre-crisis level by 3.1% and 1.3%, respectively, with exports also reaching their pre-crisis level. Confidence has been preserved and we expect growth of around 6% already next year, meaning full recovery from the effects of the pandemic, which will be significantly supported by government investment.
“However, I do not consider our job to be finished, for it never ends. We continue to closely monitor all developments and stand ready to respond if we assess that the response is needed“, concluded Governor Tabaković.
Governor’s Office
