IMF approves $78 million disbursement to Bosnia

WASHINGTON, Dec 19 (Reuters) - The International Monetary Fund's board on Wednesday gave the nod to a $78 million disbursal to Bosnia, saying the country was on track with most of the conditions of its stand-by loan.

"The Fund-supported program continues to provide a valuable anchor for economic policy amid a difficult external and domestic environment," the IMF's deputy managing director Minouche Shafik said in a statement after the fund's first review of the program.

The IMF also gave Bosnia's central government a waiver for not meeting its fiscal deficit target by the end of September.

The statement did not clarify what the deficit was. The IMF had previously required that the consolidated government budget deficit - which includes both central and regional budgets - not exceed 2.5 percent of GDP.

The IMF approved a 24-month loan of 405 million euros ($537 million) to Bosnia in September to support the government's economic program at a time when the euro-zone crisis was slowing demand.

The next disbursal of funds was contingent on the central and regional governments passing their 2013 budgets, which happened earlier this month. ($1 = 0.7542 euros)

(Reporting by Anna Yukhananov; Editing by Jan Paschal)