Jul 9, 2009, 7:28 GMT
Washington/Sarajevo - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved a three-year, 1.6-billion dollars standby loan to help Bosnia cope with the global financial crisis, it emerged Thursday.
The first tranche of some 280 million dollars is to be made available immediately. Other installments of the loan are to be released after quarterly reviews of Bosnia's economic policy.
The credit aims to help Bosnia make 'orderly adjustment' to the crisis and the expected 3-per cent recession in 2009, the IMF said in a statement late Wednesday night.
IMF and Bosnia agreed the standby loan in May, but its approval came into doubt last month, when the Federation Bosnia-Herzegovina, a part of the country, backtracked on a commitment to reduce spending.
IMF went ahead with the first tranche only after the Federation again promised to slash spending by roughly one-third in a budget rebalance next month.
Bosnia was partitioned along ethnic lines to the Federation BH of Muslims and Croats and the Serb Republic in 1995 to end the war after three years.
Largely autonomous, the two 'entities' still remained under the single umbrella in talks with the IMF.
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