---

20/09/2017

The Governor of the Central Bank of Montenegro, Mr Radoje Žugić, PhD, met today with the World Bank Head for Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr Emanuel Salinas.

The status of activities that the CBCG is implementing in order to make budget support from the World Bank more concrete was discussed at the meeting today. Governor Žugić pointed out that the CBCG implemented all the agreed activities in accordance with the specified deadlines, and that the effects of the measures taken were already visible and measurable. "In the past month, an additional decline in the level of past due loans was achieved, from 8.18% to 7.82%, and the banks announced carrying out a significant number of restructuring initiatives, which means that in the forthcoming period we can expect further reduction in the level of NPLs" said the Governor. In addition to further downsizing of the NPL level, the CBCG is committed to further improving the regulatory framework, in order to fully harmonize it with EU standards and best banking practice.

"With the positive trends recorded in the banking sector, the economic situation is improving, which is confirmed by the high growth rate achieved in the first half of the year, unofficially amounting to 4%, which we expect to be even higher," Žugić added.

Mr. Salinas expressed satisfaction with the achieved results and support to the activities taken by the CBCG, aimed at maintaining the stability of the financial system, which, with a strong fiscal consolidation by the Government, contributes to reaching the final agreement on the budget support programme.

With the agreement that the cooperation between the CBCG and the World Bank will be even more intensive and more frequent in the upcoming period, the two also discussed the preparations for the participation of the delegation of Montenegro at the forthcoming Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the IMF, to be held in mid-October in Washington.