Petar Djukic, a professor of economics at the Faculty of Technology, believes that the crisis will hit Serbia drastically, that the fall will be at the 1999 level and does not, therefore, consider a rational lump sum announcement of the salary increase to medical workers, adding that it is better to reward them with bonuses for extraordinary effort. In the post-corona period, at least six months should pass until the psychological state of the consumer returns to the previous level, he added.
Djukic thinks the crisis will drastically hit Serbia. By relaying what they told him through a survey he did with workers and employers, from micro to small businesses, the situation is likely to be much more drastic than in 2009. “Probably at the level of the 1999 fall”.
He said that there would be a slightly lower recession in the world than in our country.
People need to be told the truth and told that they cannot live with higher spending, higher wages, all payments from the budget, including pensions, and our GDP will be lower, he said.
Many things could be done, said N1 source, adding that in conversation with representatives of small and micro enterprises, he was told that he needed relief from his current tax obligations, but not only that, but also other things – how to ensure the transportation of workers, sanitary ware, masks – when you have nowhere to buy them and your supplies run out …
The president announces billions of grants, when asked what can be expected, Djukic states that if you do not know how to help, whether to give special loans to some banks, then … “Banks send emails to loan users that they do not have to repay those loans these three months, and then they neatly calculate all these interest rates and attach them to their installments…Then it means that they will be in some types of earnings, but come on”.
If you tell people right at the start of a pandemic, they don’t have to pay bills (to some groups), so how will some people survive, he asked. This general non-payment of my respondents is most frightening, said the professor.
All of my interviewees said they could last but one to five months in the present circumstances. And they all say – I have not fired anyone, I pay contributions and taxes, but they are suspicious of the measures, they are afraid of a selective approach – that someone will give their friends meat, cabbage, and on average it turns out that they have given a charm, Djukic said.
“They tell me roughly – it’s easy for someone who has a hotel, which is otherwise empty, to give to the state to pay for maintenance and use it, and what little we give”, he said.
There will be no sudden recovery even after the epidemic passes, because there is a psychological factor, and he reminds us that the epidemic is accelerating and decreasing differently, in different countries, because in India it is just beginning.
Returning to the current state and measures of the state, Djukic says that everyone should be explained that it cannot be spent more and that public money and finances be preserved. He states that bonuses are given to medical professionals for special efforts and risks, but in no way can they be said to be lump sum, there is an increase. In this state of affairs, something can be increased and shared, but if you do not have pay grades and have not formulated the sector, you have no trump card to make lump-sum promises, he concludes, N1 reports.
