BELGRADE, Jan 27 (Reuters) – The Serbian government
will buy back U.S. Steel Corp’s loss-making Serbian plant
for a nominal one U.S. dollar to avert major job losses and
preserve a key exporter ahead of elections in May.

“We have agreed to buy it back for $1,” Prime Minister Mirko
Cvetkovic told a news conference on Friday. “U.S. Steel is
leaving Serbia and the reason for that is the economic crisis.”

BELGRADE, Jan 26 (Reuters) – Serbia’s government is
mulling buying back U.S. Steel Corp’s underperforming
Serbian unit, a senior government official said, potentially
averting huge job losses but straining the budget of the
struggling Balkan country.

U.S. Steel bought the bankrupt steel mill in 2003 for $33
million in one of the first major privatisation deals after the
fall of strongman Slobodan Milosevic in 2000, but it has been
running well below annual capacity of 2.4 million tonnes for the
past five years.

BELGRADE, Jan 24 (Reuters) – The Serbian government is
to form a special team to help maintain production at U.S. Steel
Corp’s underperforming Serbian unit, a major employer and
exporter for the Balkan country, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

U.S. Steel Serbia this month put the majority of its
workforce on a four-day working week to help cut costs, having
idled one its two blast furnaces last year.

BELGRADE, Dec 16 (Reuters) – The Serbian air force,
left with just a handful of operational planes after wars in the
1990s, wants to buy a dozen aircraft at a cost of around 1
billion euros (1.3 billion), a defence official said on Friday.

“The procurement of two squadrons, weapons systems, spares
and training will likely require additional borrowing,” said the
official, who asked not to be named. “Parliamentary approval
would be needed.”

BELGRADE, Dec 12 (Reuters) – Serbia’s central bank
announced measures on Monday to encourage more lending to
businesses amid government concern that liquidity problems are
slowing growth in the Balkan country.

The central bank has resisted pressure to reduce its foreign
currency requirement for commercial banks, currently set at 30
percent for short-term euro assets, fearing capital outflow from
European-owned bank subsidiaries in Serbia.

NOVA CRNJA, Serbia (Reuters) – Pera Milankov is literally paying people to stay and have babies in Nova Crnja.

Trying to stem a declining birthrate and exodus out of the town on Serbia’s northern border, the mayor has offered free school buses and free medical check-ups for children, as well as 200 euros for every newborn.

PANCEVO, Serbia, Nov 21 (Reuters) – Russia’s pipeline
gas export monopoly Gazprom expects a slight fall in
prices paid by European consumers in the first quarter of 2012,
its chief executive officer said on Monday.

“At the beginning of next year’s first quarter we will have
a small decrease of gas prices,” Alexei Miller told reporters.
He declined to say by how much he saw them falling.

BELGRADE, Nov 3 (Reuters) – Serbia said on Thursday it was
looking into ways to improve performance at a key U.S.
Steel-owned steel mill, saying it hoped to avert the potential
closure of a major exporter and employer for the Balkan country.

“We hope there will be no closure, after all we are talking
about 5,500 employees,” Serbian Economy Minister Nebojsa Ciric
told reporters after a business forum in Belgrade.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbian President Boris Tadic urged an end to a tense stand-off between Serbs and NATO troops in Kosovo but was rebuffed by hardline Kosovo Serb leaders after five hours of talks late on Sunday.

Tadic is under pressure from the European Union to resolve a three-month-long stalemate between NATO peacekeepers and Serbs manning barricades in the north of Serbia’s former province.

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Serbian authorities may ban a gay rights parade in Belgrade on Sunday and all other public gatherings this weekend because they fear a repeat of the violence at last year’s event.

Gay and human rights activists plan to gather in a park and march past government buildings. Ultranationalist groups have said they will stage a counter-rally.