The Minister of Finance, Aleksandar Damjanovic, will leave today for an official two-day visit to Hungary, during which he is to negotiate with the management of the Hungarian OTP Bank on the conditions under which Montenegro could borrow funds from it by the end of this year, Pobjeda has been unofficially confirmed by the Government.
In Budapest, Damjanovic is meeting with OTP CEO Sandor Csanyi in order to try to secure the lacking funds for financing budget obligations this year and deposits for the next. Hungarian OTP is the owner of Crnogorska Kommercielja Banka (CKB), the largest bank in Montenegro.
Damjanovic previously announced that the borrowing, planned in the amount of up to €350m, will be carried out on the domestic market. However, banks operating in Montenegro cannot lend the state more than €150m through loan arrangements.
Their exposure to the state is over €900m, which, in addition to loans taken out by the Government and state enterprises, also includes loans of pensioners and employees in the public sector. It is not known at what interest rates domestic banks offered €150m to the state.
By issuing government T-bills, Damjanovic plans to collect an additional €70m from domestic banks, but that amount should be returned to them within 6 months.
