Serbia could also sell bonds to citizens

Like Croatia, Serbia could also sell government bonds to citizens in order to raise the money it lacks for the budget at a lower interest rate than on the international capital market.

„The state of Serbia, if it wants, can sell bonds to citizens because there are no obstacles, except that it would have to make a campaign and educate them to invest money from savings in bonds. Banks, which have a dominant position on the financial market, would slightly resent the state because of this,“ said analyst of the brokerage firm Momentum Securities, Nenad Gujanicic.

This, he said, would be to the benefit of both the state and the citizens, because interest rates on the bond market, on which professional investors mostly trade, have risen sharply since last year, and banks that are superior to clients increase them more slowly.

Gujanicic said that banks in Serbia gave interest to clients on savings in euros of three percent for the period of three years, and the yield on bonds with such or a slightly longer deadline is higher.

„Due to this difference in interest, there is room for the state of Serbia to issue some securities for three years and offer them to the citizens, with a yield of four percent, instead of selling them on the international capital market with interest of six or seven percent,“ Gujanicic said.

He added that this would also be an incentive for the development of the financial market in Serbia and the possibility to educate citizens that they did not have to invest only in real estate and bank deposits.

He pointed out thatcitizens in Serbia had about 13-14 billion euros in savings in banks and no one expected that all these funds would be withdrawn, but it would be a fantastic success if the state collected one billion euros on bonds, which would represent only six-seven percent of the total savings.

Croatia offered its citizens the first Croatian national bonds at a minimum deposit of 500 euros. The Finance Ministry announced that 44,843 citizens paid the amount of 1.34 billion euros for state bonds.

Izvor: Beta

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