Izvor: N1 televizija, 09.Okt.2018, 16:18 (ažurirano 02.Apr.2020.)
Serbia lagging behind central and eastern Europe
Serbia is lagging behind the countries of central and eastern Europe because of its low level of economic growth, Fiscal Council President Pavle Petrovic said on Tuesday.
The economic trends in Serbia will be significantly weaker this year than the average in the countries of central and eastern Europe, he said.
“The situation is not much better this year, even with the relatively high GDP growth which we believe will stand at 4.4 percent, since the faster growth is >> Pročitaj celu vest na sajtu N1 televizija << caused by extraordinary circumstances, especially agriculture which has seen improvement compared to the drought-stricken 2017,” Petrovic said.
He said that next year’s state budget will include up to 450 million Euro which should be used to increase public investments and allow a reduction of taxes on wages from the current 63 percent to 60 percent.
“Serbia has ranked lowest among the countries of central and eastern Europe in terms of domestic investments for years and we need to invest much more in roads and railways and the environment in 2019,” Petrovic said.
The Fiscal Council chief said that Serbia’s public debt is dropping to the safe level of 50 percent of the GDP, partly due to better fiscal results but mainly because of the re-examination of the GDP by the Republic Statistics Office which found that Serbia’s GDP is almost 2.5 billion Euros or 6.5 percent higher than we thought. “That reduced the share of the public debt in the GDP by from 4 percent in a single day, taking it from almost 60 percent to 56 percent without any debt repayment,” Petrovic said.
