Mali: New S&P report may give Serbia investment-grade credit rating

WASHINGTON - Serbian Finance Minister Sinisa Mali said a new Standard & Poor's report on Serbia, due in October, may give the country investment-grade credit rating as early as this year.

Mali said this after a meeting with the credit rating agency's representatives in Washington, where he is attending the IMF/World Bank Group Spring Meetings.

"Usually I am not very optimistic but now, after this meeting, I am a bit more optimistic than I was before. We had a good and constructive meeting, difficult questions. We had a meeting with the S&P director for Europe, who inquired about our economy and, of course, our plans, as well as about regional problems, the Belgrade-Prisina relations, the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and everything that affects the credit rating," Mali told Tanjug.