The opportunity exists for Serbia to start connecting with rapidly changing global economic trends and to launch products and services that have higher added value, and thus a greater impact on GDP growth and employment.
The new Government of Serbia is awaited by the difficult task of continuing to provide financial support and preserve jobs within the scope of limited budget funds and reduced space for additional borrowing. These emergency measures are essential until the disrupted relations on the domestic and global market that have occurred as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic return to normal. And that can take a long time, which is why it will be necessary to have a combination of measures: additional borrowing in compliance with the Maastricht criteria, increased public revenues through more efficient collections of taxes and contributions, the phased increase of excise duties, wage increases in the public sector exclusively in line with rising prices, limits on investment in defence and security, the temporary postponing of some investment plans and the reallocating of funds to the advantage of health and education.
The new Government of Serbia is awaited by the difficult task of continuing to provide financial support and preserve jobs within the scope of limited budget funds and reduced space for additional borrowing.
Alongside these intervention measures, the new government must immediately prepare for a period of “normalization”, during which the priority becomes the achieving of rapid and sustainable economic growth under conditions of internal and external macroeconomic stability, and the continuation of essential market reforms. It is both an opportunity and a necessity to further direct economic activity, on the basis of all the changes and experiences that have taken place worldwide, and for Serbia to reconsider its development priorities and evaluate human, material and natural potentials in a new way. This is an opportunity for Serbia to start connecting with rapidly changing global economic trends and to launch products and services that have higher added value, and thus a greater impact on GDP growth and employment. Such substantial structural changes to the economy are much more easily and quickly implemented under conditions of the efficient functioning of market economy institutions and respect for the rule of law. These are the two key economic and political priorities of the new government.
