Belgrade-Zrenjanin-Novi Sad Highway: 28 Billion in Loans

The Serbian government has sent the National Assembly three separate loan law proposals for state borrowing from commercial banks to finance the Belgrade-Zrenjanin-Novi Sad highway. Combined, the three loans total 28 billion dinars (about 239 million euros at the median exchange rate). Alongside the proposals, the terms are visible for the first time: maturity, margin, fees and the cost of early repayment.

Who Is Lending and How Much

• UniCredit Bank Srbija: up to 13 billion dinars (about 111 million euros)
• NLB Komercijalna banka: up to 10 billion dinars (about 85 million euros)
• Banca Intesa: 5 billion dinars (about 43 million euros)

The long term investment loan agreements with all three banks were signed in July 2026. They rest on a framework commercial contract for design and construction work, signed on November 10, 2023, and its annex 4, worth 300 million euros. Funds can be drawn over three years from the date the agreements take effect.

What Does This Money Cost?

The interest rate is the same across all three loans: three month BELIBOR plus a fixed annual margin of 2.4 percent. BELIBOR is the reference rate at which banks in Serbia lend dinars to one another, so it is the variable part of the price, while the margin stays fixed until the debt is repaid.

The processing and disbursement fee is 0.3 percent of the total loan amount, paid as a one time charge. The same rate applies annually to funds the state has contracted but not drawn. Early repayment is not free either: it carries a 1.5 percent charge on the amount repaid ahead of schedule, so any calculation of paying down the debt early has to include that cost.

Maturity is the only point where the three agreements differ. The UniCredit loan is repaid semi annually, matures in nine years and carries a two year grace period, the stretch during which the principal is not repaid. The Banca Intesa and NLB Komercijalna loans are repaid quarterly, mature in ten years and carry a three year grace period. In all three cases, the principal is repaid in equal installments.

What Remains of the Budget Framework

The 2026 budget law approved borrowing of up to 35 billion dinars for this project. These three agreements use 28 billion, or 80 percent of the approved framework. That leaves about seven billion dinars (roughly 60 million euros) of room for the rest of the year, and anything beyond that would require a new decision by parliament.

Why the Debt Is in Dinars

All three loans were contracted in dinars, with the stated rationale that this supports greater use of the domestic currency and reduces currency risk in the financial system. For the budget, that cuts two ways. The euro exchange rate can no longer inflate the dinar value of the debt, but the cost of servicing it now depends on BELIBOR, meaning on the direction of domestic interest rates over the next decade.

This borrowing fits the same picture we described when public debt grew by 1.95 billion euros while its share of GDP fell: the nominal amount of debt is rising, and its sustainability rests on growth in gross domestic product and on infrastructure investment meant to produce that growth. The Banat leg of the highway network is one of the projects riding on that logic.

The next step is a vote by lawmakers on all three bills, since without parliamentary approval the agreements signed in July cannot take effect.