Montenegro determined to accomplish European goal

The Montenegrin Government strongly disagrees with the negative image of Montenegro’s business and banking environment portrayed in the latest Reuters report “In the wild west Balkans, a banker's tale”.

The Reuters article grossly misrepresents the true situation in Montenegro’s financial industry, economy and society in general. There are a number of compelling arguments that counter the Reuters report.

First, in recognition of its efforts in embracing common European values and meeting stringent EU requirements, including the existence of a functioning market economy to EU standards, Montenegro was granted EU candidate status late last year.

Second, the country has been praised lately by all most senior EU officials and several European leaders for its manifest progress in meeting the EU accession criteria, most important being the rule of law and the fight against crime and corruption. At their spring session earlier this month, the IMF and the World Bank welcomed Montenegro’s advancement in economic and structural reform, regardless of the challenges that still remain. Furthermore, the latest Gallup survey shows a downward trend in public sector corruption in the country.

Third, it is clearly a duty for both incumbent and former state officials to report any form of bribery, as the government protects the whistleblowers.

Next, if the banking and financial sector in Montenegro was really as bad as the report suggests, Montenegro would never have investors rushing to buy its latest Eurobond issue, Moody’s would not have upgraded its credit outlook from negative to stable and the FDI volume in the first two months could not have grown by more than 20% against the same period last year.

For a complete and true account of the situation in Montenegro's banking sector, it is only fair to say that the Government and the Central Bank are currently working together with Prva Bank and World Bank experts to put in place the road map in order to resolve that issue. Here it also is worth mentioning that the level of government deposits in that particular bank is below one-month national pension cost. Nevertheless, the Finance Ministry has started with the gradual withdrawal of governments deposits.