Montenegro forced into emergency 2% VAT rise

The Montenegro government has rushed through an emergency 2% rise in its Value Added Tax rate this Tuesday under pressure from the International Monetary Fund.  The effective date will be 1 July 2013.

The rise will take the VAT rate to 19%, still below the EU average VAT rate of over 21%.

The IMF has raised concerns around Montenegro's uncontrolled sovereign debt levels of 54% of GDP.  The former Serbian region has still not fully recovered following its 2006 independence.