Delegation of Montenegro continues participation at the World Bank and the IMF Meetings
13/10/2018
The Delegation of Montenegro, led by the Minister of Finance, Darko Radunović, and the Governor of the Central Bank of Montenegro, Radoje Žugić, continued its participate in the annual Meeting of the IMF and the World Bank.
The delegation participated at the conference on the presentation of the “Regional Economic Outlook” report. During the conference, chaired by the President of the European Department of the IMF, Poul Thomsen, it was stated that economic expansion is expected to continue, yet at a slower pace due to growing risk. The key sources of risk include external demand weakening, higher fuel prices and business cycle slowdown in Europe. It was concluded that growth slowdown could be expected, yet with a still relatively high growth. The recommendation for conducting economic policies is to “build” space for the monetary and fiscal policy manoeuvre gradually.
The Vice-President of the World Bank, Cyril Muller, pointed out that Montenegro is facing less challenges today than in the previous period, and that structural reforms are needed to fully support fiscal consolidation. He particularly emphasized the confidence built between the World Bank and the Montenegrin institutions pointing out that almost all conditions for the approval of the second part of development policy guarantee had been met regarding the fiscal measures and financial stability. Muller also said that the previous project of granting development policy guarantees was one of the most successful ones and that they would try to transfer positive experience from Montenegro to other countries. The meeting also discussed current projects in the area of waste management, tax administration reform and support to the process of public sector optimising. Minister Radunović emphasized that the Government of Montenegro is working on the implementation of structural reforms both to obtain the second part of the development policy guarantee and to strengthen economic growth. Governor Žugić pointed out that the banking system was stable, liquid and profitable and that, for the first time, the level of assets exceeded the level of GDP.
At a meeting with the Executive Director of the Dutch Constituency at the World Bank, Frank Heemskerk, the delegation discussed further European integration processes. The Government of Montenegro received full support for giving airports under concession, taking into account to select a reputable concessionaire bearing in mind all potential risks.
In the afternoon, a bilateral meeting was held with Poul Thomsen, the Director of the European Department of the IMF. At this meeting, Minister Radunović pointed out that the macroeconomic stability of Montenegro strengthened, and he presented high economic growth rates in 2017 and the first half of 2018, as well as indicators of budget revenues increase. Governor Žugić informed Mr. Thomsen on the significant improvements in the financial system. They also discussed the possible IMF technical assistance for further banking system improvement.
Our delegation also met the Treasurer General of the Ministry of Finance of the Netherlands, Christian Rebergen. The topic of the meeting was Montenegro’s EU accession process.