The Minister of Finance, Sinisa Mali, stated today that the government came out with a proposal to increase the minimum wage for 2022 by 9.4 percent compared to the existing one, and added that this was the first time that our minimum wage would go to almost 300 euros.
He added that most of the increase in the minimum wage will be compensated by the state through an increase in the non-taxable part of income and a reduction in contributions to the PIO fund.
The Minister of Finance said, as a guest on RTS, that a collegium of the Social and Economic Council was held on Friday and that they proposed that the minimum wage be increased to almost 300 euros.
“We came up with a proposal to increase the minimum wage for 2022 by as much as 9.4 percent compared to the existing one. From 270 euros to 300 euros. This is the first time that our minimum wage will go to almost 300 euros and one a sign of continuity that the Government of Serbia has been implementing when it comes to the minimum wage since 2017, when we completed fiscal consolidation and some difficult measures that are behind us,” said Mali.
He added that the minimum wage has increased by 52 percent since 2017, while in the same period, as stated by Mali, the growth of the gross domestic product (GDP) of 17.3 percent was recorded.
Mali said that it is not enough yet for the minimum wage to cover the consumer basket, but that we are “extremely close”.
“In 2017, the coverage of the minimum consumer basket with the minimum wage was 62 percent. Today it is 81.5 percent. When you look at it from 2017, in relation to the minimum consumer basket, the minimum wage grows five times more,” said Mali.
He stated that they are fully committed to achieving the set goal and that, according to projections, in 2023 or 2024, the minimum consumer basket will be fully covered by the minimum wage.
“It is our commitment that the standard of living is growing on the one hand, without endangering the full employment we have achieved, opening factories, new jobs, which could be jeopardized if the minimum wage is higher than the finances allowed increases from year to year,” Mali said.
He pointed out that the minimum wage is the main driver of average salary growth.
“We are completely in the dynamics of achieving the goal defined by the ‘Serbia 2025′ program, which is that at the end of 2025, the average salary in Serbia will be 900 euros,” Mali emphasized.
Speaking about the payment of citizens’ assistance, Sinisa Mali said that on September 22, 50 euros will be paid to all pensioners in Serbia, that another 30 euros will be paid in November, and in December all citizens will receive another 20 euros, and that all pensioners will get 270 euros next year. He added that almost eight billion euros were set aside for that.
When asked if there is that money in the budget, Mali stated that at this moment, the share of public debt in GDP is 55 percent, which, as he pointed out, is “much less” than the level of 60 percent defined by the Maastricht Treaty.
“Our results are much, much better than we predicted. For the first seven months, not to mention August, we will wait for it tomorrow, we planned a deficit of 1.6 billion euros for the first seven months. We have a result of 330 million euros minus for the first seven months. So, 1.3 billion euros is a better result than we predicted,” Mali pointed out.
Mali stated that there were no mistakes in the budget and that they were conservative when planning, but that the recovery is much faster.
“We had 13.4 percent growth in our economy in the second quarter. With that growth, including the first quarter, at least 6.5 percent by the end of the year, and we counted six. If you look at minus one, the result by which we may be the best in Europe, among the first two or three economies last year, with a plus of 6.5 or seven percent this year, we will be the first, second or third in Europe at this time of the biggest economic crisis caused by Covid 19,” said Mali.
He emphasized that this shows how much Serbia has changed and that the state has never helped the citizens and the economy again.
Speaking about the meeting with the new head of the IMF for Serbia, Mali stated that the IMF made a decision last week to give all its members as much money as each of those members has the right to withdraw.
“That is 890 million dollars for Serbia, at an interest rate of 0.05 percent. That money has already been allocated to us, we just need to see when we will withdraw it, just like all other countries. Let’s see if we will return some old loans, we will certainly use part of them to continue the investments, this cycle that we started in Serbia,” said Mali.
He added that we would never ask for that money, but now that we have already received it, why not use it, RTV reports.
