The International Monetary Fund announced today that it would delay the final approval of its $608 million loan agreement for BiH. BiH and the entities need the money to meet their budgetary requirements, and have already finalized an agreement with each other and the IMF. However, Federation prime minister Fadil Novalic and BiH Council of Ministers chair Denis Zvizdic have refused to sign that agreement.
The Bosniak leaders have not publicly given a reason for withholding their signatures, but political sources suggest that they are trying to force the leadership of Republika Srpska to acquiesce on an entirely unrelated political issue, the approval of changes to the BiH accession agreement with the European Union.
