Serbia’s Soskic Says Dinar Should Strengthen, Novosti Reports

The Serbian dinar’s weakness is temporary and the currency should strengthen if the government that emerges from May 6 elections convinces the International Monetary Fund it’s serious about fiscal tightening, Novosti cited central bank governor Dejan Soskic as saying.

The National Bank of Serbia has sold 708.5 million euros ($931 million) since the start of the year to prevent the weakening dinar from fuelling inflation and causing financial instability, Soskic told the Belgrade newspaper.

Supporting the dinar has been “very expensive” and can be conducted for a limited time, Novosti cited him as saying.

The dinar traded at 112.0294 to the euro at 10:50 a.m. in Belgrade, 10.11 percent lower than a year ago, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gordana Filipovic in Belgrade at gfilipovic@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James M. Gomez at jagomez@bloomberg.net