Serbia paying Kosovo's debt since 2001

According to National Bank of Serbia (NSB) data, Serbia took on a debt of EUR 858 million owed by the Autonomous Province of Kosovo to foreign creditors and turned it into public debt. It has repaid EUR 488 million to date.The Finance Ministry's Public Debt Administration confirmed to the daily that Serbia has been regularly repaying the loans of Kosovo companies since 2011.In 1988, shorty before the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, the debt to international creditors was reprogrammed and Kosovo's portion of the debt totaled USD 1.3 billion, recalls the press .The debt was repaid regularly until sanctions were introduced against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and then reprogrammed again - the debt to the Paris Club in 2002 and to the London Club in 2005.According to the paper, only Kosovo's debt to the World Bank was deducted from the total after Kosovo joined the international financial institution in 2009.The Public Debt Administration says the loans for Kosovo came from the Paris Club, the London Club, the World Bank, the EU, Eurofima, Council of Europe Development Bank and bilateral credit arrangements, and the money was invested in infrastructure and industrialization.The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the guarantor of the loans and Serbia, as its legal successor, took on the debt even though tax revenue from Kosovo has not been coming into the Serbian budget since 1999, notes Politika.