Serbia repays early 172.7 mln euro debt to Azerbaijan

Serbia has repaid early a 172.7 million euro ($210 million) outstanding debt to Azerbaijan under a loan for the construction of a Corridor XI road section, Serbian finance minister Sinisa Mali said.

The government has repaid the debt using proceeds from the sale of its 83.23% shareholding interest in blue-chip lender Komercijalna Banka to Slovenia's Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB) for 394.7 million euro, according to a press release.

"In this way, we saved the citizens of Serbia 25.9 million euro in interest that they would have paid by 2027," Mali said.

Last month, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said the repayment of the debt will reduce Serbia's public debt-to-gross domestic product (GDP) ratio by 0.42% to 58.5%, SeeNews reported.

Serbia agreed to receive a 300 million euro loan from the Azeri government for the construction of the Preljina-Ljig section of Corridor XI in 2012. The construction works were carried out by Azeri construction company Azvirt.