Podgorica, (MINA-BUSINESS) – The Ministry of Finance has paid the ninth instalment of the loan for the first section of the Bar–Boljare motorway to China Exim Bank, saving additional €620,000 thanks to a hedging arrangement.

“Had the arrangement not been in place, the Government would have had to pay €33.8 million according to the Central Bank of Montenegro’s (CBCG) middle exchange rate. However, due to the timely implemented hedging arrangement, the actual payment amounted to €33.18 million,” the Ministry stated in a press release.

This means Montenegro again avoided the negative effects of currency fluctuations on the July instalment.

“Since the beginning of implementation of the hedging arrangement, total have reached €12.6 million,” the Ministry specified.

Earlier this year, the Ministry proactively decided to revise the terms of the arrangement for the period after this year as a result of developments in the global market.

As of January next year, a new fixed interest rate of 1.46 percent will come into effect, still lower than the original terms of the Exim Bank loan. Until then, the current rate of 0.98 percent remains in effect.