Minister Špirić receives Departing and Newly-Appointed Head of IMF Mission in BIH



Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Finance and Treasury dr. Nikola Špirić talked with departing head of Mission of IMF in BIH Costas Christou and his successor in office Ron van Ruden.

Minister Špirić thanked to Christou for his past cooperation and commitment, and welcomed van Ruden, expressing his wish that a good cooperation would continue.

The meeting agreed on necessity to embrace reforms derived from a letter of Intention with the IMF, which would be implemented across all levels of authority. The first IMF Monitoring Mission on the new Arrangement o scheduled for the mid November.

Minister Špirić briefed the IMF representatives on the 2013 BIH Budget adoption, and expressed his expectation that, for the first time, it would be adopted by the end of the current year, since the Draft Budget was prepared and sent form the Ministry of Finance and Treasury to the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of BIH.

The Minister of Finance and Treasury reminded that the 2012-2015 Global Fiscal Framework was adopted earlier, so no impediments were foreseen to the adoption of the annual Budget unless unfounded political discussions take place, as was the case early this year.

“Accusations by politicians claiming that the BIH Institutions would have been endangered due to savings and smaller this year’s Budget turned out to be unfounded as this year will be ended with a surplus”, Špirić said.

The meeting was attended by IMF Resident representative in BIH Milan Cuc, who also leaves the office and BIH, and Minister Špirić used this visit to thank him for his cooperation, and successful and diligent work which yielded good results.

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