ANSA news

(by correspondant Beniamino Pagliaro) (ANSA) - VIENNA - Even though the current estimate made by the government has predicted a decrease by 0.5% in 2015, Serbia's Finance Minister is confident that he will be able to reverse this trend by the end of the year. This figure - says speaking with ANSA New Europe Dusan Vujovic, during the Euromoney Forum in Vienna - is ''a conservative projection in which we did not include many potentially positive factors'', such as the recovery in the coal and electricity market and some property disposals. Vujovic expects, therefore, a ''low growth in 2015 and a higher growth in 2016''. Serbia's situation is singularly intricate. Serbia's minister must pursue reforms, stimulate the economy which is still in trouble, reorganize the banking system and deliver a reassuring picture in Brussels, in order to move forward on the EU path. On the one hand, you find the investment issue, for which the government hopes to obtain a new loan from the International Monetary Fund by the end of February. But priorities for 2015 include even the cuts, Vujovic said, explaining that he's aiming at achieving a budget deficit of 5% or less in 2015, ''in line with the aim of reaching 3% by the end of 2017''. The halfway mark of the goal, about 650-700 million euros, will be reached through public spending cuts: direct cuts to salaries, some ''small new taxes'', including transit fees. ''If we have more revenue, even through privatization - Vujovic added -, we will be able to repay a part of our debt and we will be able to will complete some infrastructure investment. ''The privatization issue, however, is another matter, starting with Telekom Serbja. The evaluation process, developed by the advisor, is now in progress. And the value of the sale will be ''a multiple of the EBITDA'', Vujovic underlined, but ''this depends on the market. We are talking about some billions of euros, substantially more than one billion offered two years ago, ''in the tender procedure which was later canceled. The minister says he wants to complete the bidding process in 2015'', but calls for calm: ''It depends on the stock market. If it goes down, and the great players like Austria Telekom and Deutsche Telekom have problems, perhaps it will be wiser to wait'', Vujovic said, without commenting, however, on the offer senders. The privatization of Elektroprivreda Srbije, the electricity company, will take a longer time - from one to three years -, whereas Belgrade also wants also to sell unnecessary bank shares. The government is working to resolve the problem of bad loans by means of ''a set of laws'' that will be voted in Parliament this month, and in the last few hours the government is thinking of taking some measure in order support those who had taken out a mortgage in Swiss francs. The goal of this reform - the Minister continued - is to create ''a new transparent environment''. A new monitoring body, the Financial Institution Resolution Unit (Firu), will have the power to control and resolve problems, Vujovic underlined. Funds from the World Bank and from the EBRD are available ''when necessary''. Among the ''unnecessary'' public shareholdings, there is, for instance, Komercijalna banka, which is 43% state owned. ''It's a bank that works, we do not we see any reason to be a shareholder'', the minister announced. (ANSA).