Public debt 70 pct of GDP by year's end

BELGRADE - Serbia's public debt will exceed EUR 23 billion and amount to around 70 percent of the GDP by the end of 2014, the Fiscal Council stated in its report for September.

The Fiscal Council said that the public debt amounted to EUR 22.6 billion, or 68.2 percent of the GDP at the end of September, and that it went up by EUR 250 million mainly due to weakening of the euro against the dollar.

Compared to the beginning of the year, the public debt increased by about EUR 2.0 billion and it is evident that by the end of the year it will exceed EUR 23 billion, said the Fiscal Council.

The report reads that in September the country's deficit stood at RSD 14 billion, which is the result of a temporary increase in revenues and almost equal, also temporary, increase in public expenditure. The September deficit is somewhat below the monthly average in 2014.

The consolidated public deficit in 2014 will most probably reach RSD 300 billion, or 7.6 percent of the GDP, including all expenditures on state-owned enterprises and banks, which are not included in the budget review or monthly reporting on the budget of the Ministry Finance, said the Fiscal Council.

The September revenues were significantly greater than in August, and the one-time increase resulted from a temporary rise in excises and an extraordinary growth in donations and capital profits, reads the report.

September's increase in expenditures came from extremely high interest rate payments, a significant increase of other current expenditures and growth in capital expenditures.

High interest rate payments in September were expected considering maturity dates of coupons of issued Eurobonds, the report reads.

An increase in...