The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed Friday the seventh and final review under its two-year stand-by arrangement (SBA) with Serbia.

The completion of the review enables the immediate disbursement of about EUR 350 million or USD 509 million, although the Serbian authorities have indicated that they intend to purchase only about EUR 51 million or USD 74 million, or 10 percent of the country's IMF quota.

This brings the total disbursements under the program to about EUR 1.5 billion.

Serbia's initial 15-month SBA was approved on January 16, 2009, in the amount of about EUR 388 million. On May 15, 2009, the arrangement was extended by one year and augmented to about EUR 2.9 billion to support the government's economic program amid a sharper than expected impact from the global financial crisis.

The SBA expires on April 15.

Following the Executive Board's discussion of Serbia, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn stated Friday that “Serbia's satisfactory performance under its economic program supported by the Fund's Stand-by arrangement contributed to reducing vulnerabilities and helped avert a financial meltdown during the global crisis.”

He pointed out that the growth outlook was favorable, although inflationary pressures were rising.