Serbia pays off dollar bonds from 2012 - Public debts decreases by half a billion euros

(Photo: vovan/shutterstock.com)

These are five-year debt securities, issued at interest rates of 5.25%, thereby reducing total government debt from EUR 24.11 billion, as of September 30 this year, to EUR 23.6 billion, ending November 21. That means debt has been reduced by about half a billion euros in a month, Politika says.

A few years ago, this date (November 21st) was almost considered to be the judgment day of Serbian public finances, and experts argued that the state could provide dollar liquidity to properly service those obligations.

As Politika discovers, sources for financing these USD 770 mar liabilities are provided from budget surplus. Because, plus in budget at the end of November was unofficially about RSD 80 billion. Official data are published only for September. At the end of September, the state treasury was in plus of RSD 66 billion.

Is it possible to spoil budget outcome, or will cash register be in deficit by the end of the year due to this payment? The answer is negative.

According to Milojko Arsic, professor at the Faculty of Economics, this will not affect either expenditures or deficits.