Today, the Minister of Finance, Sinisa Mali, talked with the delegation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) about the reform goals within the current arrangement and about the budget for the next year, which was assessed as having to be developmental.
The video link meeting was held as part of the fifth and final review of the Policy Management Instrument (PCI) advisory arrangement, which will run until 16 October.
As the Ministry of Finance announced, the interlocutors agreed that a lot has been done when it comes to reform processes, as well as that in the previous months, Serbia has properly coped with the crisis caused by the corona virus pandemic.
Mali pointed out that he is proud that Serbia is one of the few countries in the world that has even a slight economic growth in these months, and added that unemployment is at an all-time low and that it is 7.3 percent in the second quarter of this year.
He said that the growth of agriculture was higher than expected, which additionally contributed to good results, and emphasized that he was optimistic considering that the latest data show that the inflow of foreign direct investments has been 1.8 billion euros since the beginning of the year.
As he pointed out, Serbia is the absolute leader in attracting foreign investments in the Western Balkans, and attracts 60 percent of the total investments coming to the region.
The Minister said that Serbia intends to continue with capital investments, which will additionally affect economic growth, and that is why it is important to adopt the methodology for capital projects, which is exactly one of the successes of the arrangement with the IMF.
Jan Kees Martain said that Serbia is better overcoming the crisis than other countries in Europe, and that it has responded to the crisis caused by the corona virus in the right way, with a comprehensive economic package of measures.
He said that the package of measures was ambitious, and especially praised the fact that the sector measures are helping city hotels that were endangered during the pandemic, it is stated in the announcement.
The topic of the meeting was the increase of pensions in the public sector and salaries, and as confirmed, pensions will increase next year in accordance with the “Swiss formula” by 5.9 percent, and when it comes to salaries, the Minister pointed out that there is fiscal space for their growth, and it was agreed that specific percentages would be considered during this mission.
The “Instrument for Policy Coordination” arrangement was approved to Serbia in July 2018, for 30 months, and lasts until January 2021. It is an arrangement that has an advisory role and deals primarily with the implementation of structural reforms, ie it does not imply financial support, Danas reports.
