Expert negotiations regarding the first review of Serbia's economic performance under the Stand-By Arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) will start Thursday, immediately after the IMF delegation arrives in Belgrade, the local IMF office told Tanjug.

The IMF mission will be led by Deputy Director of the European Department Juha Kahkonen. The talks are set to start early next week and will last until mid-November.

The IMF delegation will analyze the current economic situation and chances of Serbia's economic growth in this and next year. The participants will also discuss the implementation of some previously agreed steps of the monetary and fiscal policies and the progress in structural reforms.

The key requirement for the first review of this precautionary arrangement worth EUR 1 billion is that Serbia has not breached the agreed limit on budget expenditures and has followed the fiscal rules for 2012.

The next year's budget deficit should go down from this year's 4.5 to 4.1 percent of the GDP, according to the current fiscal rules.

The mission's report from its previous visit to Belgrade states that the new arrangement with Serbia has three main goals.

The first one is to protect Serbia from a potential new global economic crisis, the second is to support the fiscal policy and the third to improve the investment climate in the country.