Economic Summit: Budget review, consumer debt, EU membership

Economic Summit: Budget review, consumer debt, EU membership

BELGRADE -- Serbian Finance Minister Lazar Krstić said on Tuesday that he believes a revision of the country's budget will be adopted in August or in mid-September.

This will take place "after the flood damage estimates and assessment of their effect on the state budget are completed."

The Finance Ministry is in contact with the World Bank and the European Union as regards the damage estimates, and with the International Monetary Fund regarding the assessment of effects of the floods on the state budget, said Krstić addressing the participants of the 14th Economic Summit in Belgrade.

The minister added that he expects a three-year stand-by arrangement with the IMF to be concluded in the fall, Tanjug, who is the conference's media partner, reported.

"16 times less"

The average indebtedness of a Serbian citizen stands at EUR 750, which is around 16 times less than the average indebtedness per EU citizen and five times less than in Croatia, said Veroljub Dugalić, secretary general of the Association of Serbian Banks.

According to the data that Dugalić presented at the 14th Economic Summit in Belgrade on Monday, the average loan debt in the EU stands at EUR 12,000 per capita and around EUR 4,000 in Croatia.

“Our loans are not expensive, it is rather that our standard is low. Our average salary stands between EUR 350-370, and there is no affordable loan with such incomes,” Dugalić said.

Commenting on the interest rates in Serbia, he said that it is impossible that they could be the same as in Austria, Germany or Croatia mostly because of high reference interest rate, high share of...