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Russia to grant $800-mln credit to Serbia

Serbia plans to spend the loan for railway modernisation

MOSCOW, January 11 (Itar-Tass) — Russia will grant a state export credit worth 800 million U.S. dollars to Serbia. Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov and Serbian Minister of Finance and Economy Mladjan Dinkic put their signatures to the relevant document on Friday.

Serbia plans to spend the loan for railway modernisation. The credit was granted for five years under 4.1 percent per annum. Russia’s state corporation “The Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank)” and the National Bank of Serbia are the authorised banks for the control over the credit use, repayment and service.

Belgrade turned to Moscow for a credit worth one billion U.S. dollars in 2008. The first 200-million U.S. dollars tranche was granted in 2010 in order to cover Serbia’s budget deficit. The remaining funds are designated exclusively for infrastructure projects after the submitting of their feasibility studies by the republic. It took almost two years to complete drafting of the documentations. The documents were ready by the end of 2012.

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FACTBOX: Collective Security Treaty Organization

The Collective Security Treaty came into force on April 20, 1994 to herald the emergence what would eventually become the Collective Security Treaty Organization. The six member-countries are Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan

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