The International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation has arrived in Belgrade, where it will launch talks with the Serbian government as of Thursday regarding the seventh revision of the stand-by credit arrangement, ahead of its expiry in April, Tanjug learnt at the IMF Belgrade Office.

The IMF mission, headed by Albert Jaeger, should stay in Serbia until February 22.

By the end of the week, the IMF delegation should carry out talks on technical matters, while the official part of the talks is due to begin on Monday, February 14, by a plenary meeting in the National Bank of Serbia.

According to announcements, main topics of the Serbia-IMF talks will include Serbia's macroeconomic development within the IMF programme and the performance regarding goals set for the end of 2010.

As IMF Permanent Representative in Belgrade Bogdan Lissovolik told Tanjug earlier, the talks will also cover the remaining structural reform, especially the matter of setting up a mechanism for restructuring corporate debt.

Ahead of the latest revision of the stand-by arrangement with Serbia, Lissovolik assessed that generally speaking, the Serbian government carried out the programme satisfactorily although results varied from field to field.

Should the government decide they want an additional programme, several alternative options could come into consideration, depending on the period the programme would cover, Lissovolik said.

The country's arrangement with the IMF, which was signed in May 2009, allowed Serbia to take out a EUR 2.87 billion loan for strengthening foreign exchange reserves. Of this sum, the country has used up approximately EUR 1.48 billion.