“Increase in salaries and pensions is not in line with current economic situation”

The announced increase in salaries in the public sector and pensions is not appropriate to Serbia’s current fiscal position, nor to developments in the field of inflation, which is why the proposal should be abandoned, Professor of the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade and editor-in-chief of the „Kvartalni monitor“ journal Milojko Arsic said today.

„Serbia’s deficit is not low, because there are a number of factors that can affect its increase in the upcoming period, such as the rise in interest rates, the cost of solving the energy problem, GDP growth that will probably be slower this year, and possibly next year, all of which affects the increase in the fiscal deficit,“ Arsic told reporters at the presentation of the new issue of „Kvartalni monitor“ published by the Faculty of Economics and FREN.

Although the proposal has not yet been adopted, and the Serbian government’s consultations with the International Monetary Fund have been announced in this regard, Arsic pointed out that it was not good in the current circumstances to further increase expenditures on salaries and pensions.

Why should we abandon the idea of increasing salaries and pensions?

„I think it would be good to abandon the proposal for the time being and to apply the Swiss formula, to try as much as possible to reduce inflation, and possibly, if there is room, to give one-off assistance to pensioners,“ Arsic said.

He explained that, given current salary growth and inflation, the implementation of the Swiss formula could be expected to lead to the pension growth by about 12% in the upcoming year.

Izvor: Beta

Foto: Printscreen, BIZLife, Beta/MilošMiškov