- Government of Montenegro
Ministry of Finance Interview of the Deputy Prime Minister and Ministe...
Please note: The page below represents the archived content relating to the previous Government of Montenegro. Some of the information might be inaccurate or outdated.
Archive
Interview of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, PhD Igor Luksic, for Reuters
Published on: May 17, 2010 • 4:15 PM Author: Ivona Mihajlović - administrator
EBRD-MONTENEGRO/
ZAGREB, May 14 (Reuters) - Montenegro expects to return to mild growth this year and hopes to shore up its public finances and reach a balanced budget in 2012, Finance Minister Igor Luksic told Reuters.
Speaking on the sidelines of an international economic conference in Zagreb, Luksic said the small former Yugoslav republic still planned to issue a eurobond worth up to 200 million euros this year, but is carefully watching the situation in the wake of the Greek debt crisis.
"We still plan to tap the markets but whether it will be before the summer depends on the assessment of our managers. The plan remains to issue up to 200 million euros," Luksic said in an interview at the annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
He said the European Union applicant's economy, which contracted 5.3 percent last year according to the government and by 7 percent according to the IMF, would post "mild growth".
The International Monetary Fund recently revised its Montenegro growth estimate for 2010 to minus 1.7 percent, in contrast to the government's estimate of 0.5 percent growth.
"This is based on the fact that we are restructuring our companies, particularly the industrial sector, like aluminum," Luksic said. "We also see mild growth of industrial production and we expect the tourist season to be somewhat better than last year's."
In the next few years, he said, the economy would return to its "natural growth rates of between four and five percent".
He said the budget deficit would taper off from this year's 4.5 percent of gross domestic product. "We plan to balance the budget in 2012 and have a slight surplus in 2013," Luksic said. (Reporting by Igor Ilic, Editing by Adam Tanner)
ZAGREB, May 14 (Reuters) - Montenegro expects to return to mild growth this year and hopes to shore up its public finances and reach a balanced budget in 2012, Finance Minister Igor Luksic told Reuters.
Speaking on the sidelines of an international economic conference in Zagreb, Luksic said the small former Yugoslav republic still planned to issue a eurobond worth up to 200 million euros this year, but is carefully watching the situation in the wake of the Greek debt crisis.
"We still plan to tap the markets but whether it will be before the summer depends on the assessment of our managers. The plan remains to issue up to 200 million euros," Luksic said in an interview at the annual meeting of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)
He said the European Union applicant's economy, which contracted 5.3 percent last year according to the government and by 7 percent according to the IMF, would post "mild growth".
The International Monetary Fund recently revised its Montenegro growth estimate for 2010 to minus 1.7 percent, in contrast to the government's estimate of 0.5 percent growth.
"This is based on the fact that we are restructuring our companies, particularly the industrial sector, like aluminum," Luksic said. "We also see mild growth of industrial production and we expect the tourist season to be somewhat better than last year's."
In the next few years, he said, the economy would return to its "natural growth rates of between four and five percent".
He said the budget deficit would taper off from this year's 4.5 percent of gross domestic product. "We plan to balance the budget in 2012 and have a slight surplus in 2013," Luksic said. (Reporting by Igor Ilic, Editing by Adam Tanner)
Related articles:
Is this page useful?