Serbia

Serbia is seeking a USD 2 billion credit line from the IMF to bolster its foreign currency reserves, according to two officials familiar with the negotiations. Serbian authorities have scaled up their request for financial help over recent weeks as the global financial crisis has deepened, an IMF official said, adding that the Serbian government had initially sought about USD 500 million. Since early October, Serbia’s central bank has used EUR 472 million euros to slow the slide of the dinar, which has weakened 20 percent against the dollar in the past two months. The country’s foreign currency reserves amounted to 10.34 billion euros in September. (Bloomberg)