National Bank of Serbia (NBS) Governor Radovan Jelasic announced Tuesday that the next EUR 350 million tranche of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) credit to Serbia will be disbursed at the start of April.

The IMF Executive Board is expected to complete the third review of Serbia's economic performance under its Stand-By Arrangement with the IMF on March 31 and approve the disbursement of the third tranche of that credit, Jelasic told a news conference.

The governor noted that Serbia received the first two tranches in 2009, which totalled EUR 1.13 billion, while the overall credit amount stands at EUR 2.87 billion.

The NBS foreign exchange reserve increased by EUR 2.3 billion since 2008 and currently stands at EUR 10.4 billion, said Jelasic, adding that the net foreign exchange reserve in mid-March was at EUR 6.3 billion.

Jelasic stated that the Serbian dinar rose by 0.1 percent compared to the euro in March, which came after a 2.6 percent drop in January and 1.2 percent in February.

The governor also added that the NBS sold EUR 571.5 million on the interbank foreign exchange market since the start of 2010.