Economist Jurij Bajec said on Thursday that Serbia’s economic growth needed to reach at least 4 percent, together with implementation of reforms, for the pensions and salaries in the public sector to go up.
However, he believes that a realistic projection for this year’s GDP growth is around 0 percent, which was also the opinion of the IMF during the first review of the three-year precautionary stand-by arrangement.
The key to sustainable growth lies in the Serbian government’s resolve to deal with the problem of its companies that have not been privatised and those undergoing restructuring, Bajec told Radio Belgrade 1.
“I respect the prime minister’s optimism when it comes to solving problems in companies that have been dependent of government aid for years, but we should not expect the issue to be resolved quickly,” he noted.
Commenting on the announced increase in the price of electricity, he said it would be realistic to expect power bills to go up by between 7.5 and 10 percent, considering the obligations stemming from the arrangement with the IMF, but also the social aspect and the people’s purchasing power.
Source; SerbGov
