Montenegrin delegation at spring session of IMF and World Bank

The delegation of Montenegro, headed by Minister of Finance Darko Radunović and Governor of the Central Bank of Montenegro Radoje Žugić, takes part in the spring session of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. The delegation met with several senior officials of these two institutions, as well as representatives of international banking institutions on the strategy of public debt management in the next two years, international investors and rating agencies.

The delegation participated in the meeting of the Dutch-Belgian Constituency, where the latest macroeconomic trends in the world were presented. The IMF presented the programme of member states' quota auditing.

The macroeconomic environment in Montenegro was presented at the meeting with Head of the IMF mission to Montenegro Srikant Seshadri. Governor Radoje Žugić pointed out that, despite the resolution of two non-systematic banks, system-level indicators indicate positive performance, characterized by high solvency coefficients, high liquidity and a further decline in non-performing loans. It was emphasised that the future activities of the Central Bank of Montenegro are focused on its institutional strengthening, through improving the capacity of the framework for the prevention of money laundering and terrorist financing, the implementation of the assessment of the value of banks' assets and the work on improving the payment system. Minister of Finance Darko Radunović noted a reduction of the budget deficit in 2018 compared to the previous year and a commitment to continuing the implementation of fiscal consolidation measures. The meeting particularly discussed the reform of tax policy and the strengthening of the framework for the implementation of public-private partnerships.

The Central Bank of Montenegro signed a memorandum of understanding with the National Bank of Ukraine, which creates conditions for further improvement of cooperation, especially in the field of money laundering prevention.

The delegation of Montenegro met with the management of the Center of Excellence in Finance (CEF) on the occasion of taking over the presidency of this organisation in the next year.