Mali boasts of full budget, he is only “bothered” by energy

The budget for next year is balanced and we took care not to give up on the basic principles related to increasing the standard of living of citizens, said Finance Minister Sinisa Mali.

Mali said that there was enough money in the budget to increase salaries and pensions, pointing out that „all investments that we started with“ should not be abandoned, adding that 6.8 percent of gross domestic product was allocated to capital investments.

„As of January 1, we are going to increase the minimum labour price by 14.3 percent and it will be higher than 40,000 dinars, which will further raise the level of average salaries. Next December, the average salary will be 820 euros, and by the end of this government’s term it will reach 1,000 euros, and the average pension will be between 420 and 430 euros,“ Mali said, adding that in January public sector salaries will be increased by 12.5 percent and for the army by 25 percent.

Mali stated that the energy item was very important in the next year’s budget, specifying that a deficit of 3.3 percent was planned, of which 1.4 percent was related to energy.

„We are trying to secure enough gas and electricity, and how successful we will be in that I cannot tell you, because things are changing from day to day and from hour to hour,“ Mali said, emphasizing that it was extremely important that we had a full gas warehouse in Banatski Dvor today.

Record foreign investment

Mali pointed out that this year too, we would have a record amount of foreign direct investments, which would exceed four billion euros, and he announced high investments in the energy sector, with the desire to be completely independent from coal by 2050.

Speaking about the increase in interest rates, Mali said that the question was how much burden the state could take on, pointing out that the increase in interest rates was due to the increasingly tight monetary policy that was being implemented in all countries of the world.

„Through the growth of salaries and pensions, we are trying to make the standard of living of citizens such that they can somehow cope with these costs,“ Mali said.

Izvor: 021, FoNet

Foto: Beta