The editor-in-chief of the NIN weekly, Milan Ćulibrk, said on Friday that Serbia missed the opportunity to make money from electricity exports, specifying that if the production of Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS) had remained at the level of 2011 or 2012, it would have been able to export electricity will make a profit of 500 or 600 million euros this year.
“We could have built a new hydroelectric power plant with that money, and we will spend one billion, maybe two billion euros on imports by the end of spring next year,” said Ćulibrk in the show “Half an hour of Demostat”, reports Beta.
He also reminded that it was agreed that the Republika Srpska should redirect the excess electricity to Serbia at a much more favorable price or “even a gentleman’s agreement that this electricity is not paid for, but that at some point it will be returned kilowatt for kilowatt”.Â
He also said that Serbia will have to import electricity, the price of which will continue to rise on the world market, but that he is convinced that the new Government of Serbia will not transfer that cost to the citizens, and in some time, not even to the companies, so as not to call into question their survival.Â
“I believe that the executive power is thinking that it is better for the state to take on that burden temporarily, until the storm passes.” At the beginning of next year, if electricity prices continue to rise, and I don’t think the opposite will happen, it will eventually have to affect the companies, and those companies will incorporate the increased cost into their prices, and hence my belief that inflation will not stop for some time”, said Ćulibrk.
Ćulibrk also believes that loan installments, which are related to the European interbank rate (Euribor), will continue to rise, because until the end of next year, and probably until the end of 2024, the interest rates of the European Central Bank will continue to rise.
“Inflation in the Eurozone is higher than in the USA and it is clear that the European Central Bank will continue to increase the Euribor, unfortunately, for more than a million citizens of Serbia, this will mean that their loan installments will increase, especially for long-term housing loans”, he said. he added that inflation “does not eat” loans because the euro is fixed and the exchange rate is the same as ten years ago.
Speaking about inflation, the editor-in-chief of NIN said that prices cannot be expected to stabilize and recalled new research by German and Swiss economic institutes, which show that inflation of 9.5 percent is expected next year.Â
“There is no normalization of supply either, world markets are facing shortages of a large number of products, lower supply is causing further price increases and we are in the middle of a vicious circle from which we will hardly get out.” It will be great if the inflation is reduced to some more normal limits by the end of next year, by which I mean around five percent, which is 2.5 times more than it has been in the last twenty years”, said Ćulibrk, Biznis writes.
