Serbia’s budget balance showed a surplus of 33.2 billion dinars ($312.8 million/275.5 million euro) in the first half of the year, finance minister Dusan Vujovic has said.
The figure is 80 billion dinars higher than planned, Vujovic said in a statement on Wednesday.
Vujovic also said that Serbia’s exports increased by 13.3% on the year in the first five months of 2017.
Serbia’s budget balance showed a surplus of 12.5 billion dinars in the five months through May, compared to a deficit of 11.3 billion dinars in the respective period of last year, the finance ministry said last month.
In May alone, Serbia reported a budget surplus of 1.8 billion dinars, based on revenues of 87.3 billion dinars and expenditure of 85.6 billion dinars.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised its projection for Serbia’s budget deficit in 2017 to 1.1% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), down from 1.7% forecast earlier, the head of IMF mission to Belgrade, James Roaf, said on Wednesday.
IMF sees Serbia’s public debt decreasing faster than initially expected, while the fiscal consolidation is progressing faster than planned, Roaf said.
