Bogdan Lissovolik, the head of the Belgrade office of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said on Jan. 30 that state debt, envisaged in the 2012 budget, was more than one percent of GDP above the agreed limit - approximately EUR300 million.

At the "Financing Growth in Serbia" conference, Lissovolik told journalists that an IMF mission would come to Belgrade on Feb. 2 and that it would speak with government representatives about ways to eradicate deviations from the agreed level of budget guarantees and state debt in 2012.

According to him, the IMF expects the budget deficit and state guarantees by the end of this year to be at a level which does not increase public debt too much.

The IMF Belgrade Office announced on Jan. 20 that a revision of the precautionary arrangement with Serbia had been postponed because the level of debt in the 2012 budget exceeded the agreed limit.