“For us, inflation depends on God, not on Jorgovanka”

Editor-in-chief of the weekly NIN, Milan Culibrk, has said that in 2023, citizens of Serbia, as far as the standard of living is concerned, can expect to live similarly to this year, and perhaps worse.

„We will live more or less the same as now if something does not get worse, because, if the state counted on an average inflation of 11 percent, it is always necessary to add an additional percentage, because when the state projects inflation – it projects it lower than it eventually will be, and when it projects GDP growth it always projects it higher than it will eventually be. So if these rules are confirmed – next year maybe we will live slightly worse than this year, and I think that this year we live worse than last year, regardless of all the ‘economic progress and that we live in the Golden Age’,“ Culibrk told N1.

He points out that this era is indeed golden for someone, and diamond for someone because in the meantime a new business elite has been created that generates great profit thanks to numerous lucrative deals with the state.

We do not eat euros

On the occasion of the authorities’ optimistic announcements of salaries ranging from 700 to 1,000 euros, Culibrk says we can get 2,000 euros, but it is only a matter of what we can buy for that money.

“They assure us that salaries have doubled in 10 years – they have not. The average salaries in 2012 were around 365 euros, and they are now around 630. The problem is that, in the meantime, everything in Serbia went up in price by about 70-80%, except for the euro, the euro is the same as it was 10 years ago.“

He emphasizes that the state must not allow the „dinar to slide“ because that would make our public debt exceed 60 percent, and our GDP would drop.

“People do not eat euros, people eat yogurt, they eat cream, meat, oil… And all of that went up in price between 25% and 30%. The fact that our salaries have risen does not mean anything, unfortunately, 80 percent of people have nothing to save and they spend money on food and fuel, and all of that went up in price by 25-30 percent,“ said Culibrk.

He also pointed out that due to the mismanagement of EPS and the damage caused to the company of four billion euros, when recalculated, each citizen would pay 500 euros.

„The state does not have a single dinar, it can only take money from taxpayers, citizens, businesses or borrow it, which it does,“ he said.

Izvor: N1

Foto: Pixabay, screenshot