Mali: IMF says Serbia doing well, GDP growth lower due to crisis and blockades

Serbian Finance Minister Sinisa Mali has said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) “has praised Serbia” and said that it was “doing well” despite the current political crisis and protest blockades of traffic routes, but that, this year, it will have a lower rate of the growth of the gross domestic product.

– The IMF says we are doing well, but we are spending reserves on a senseless thing (blockades)… We will have a smaller growth, that’s for sure, but we have preserved the stability and we have enough money on the account (if a response is needed) to another challenge or crisis – Mali said on TV Prva.

Minister Mali nevertheless added that the collection of the value-added tax, one of the biggest sources for the state budget, “is lower than planned, and not by an insignificant amount either,” and estimated that that was also due to the lower number of tourists, turnover in hotels and hospitality.

– Who wants to come over when tourists can’t even pass through the city? Scared people spend less, which is a kind of a rational decision – he adds.

According to him, the positive assessments of the IMF are important, because Serbia is looking at new reports from rating agencies in August and September.

– From one (rating agency), we have already gotten a rating of belonging among developed, investment-friendly countries, now we want to get that from the second and third ones too. That’s important, because each raising of the credit rating means that you are increasingly open to investments – the minister said.

Mali also said that, the previous day, Serbia had received confirmation from the 117th state that it would take part in the upcoming specialized exhibition Expo 2027 and that, by the number of participants, it had reached the thus far biggest specialized exhibition, the one held in 2017 in Astana (Kazakhstan).

– In several months, we will have 130 (participants), which is what our plan is. We have an opportunity to present ourselves the right way, which is why it’s important to us to have perfect highways – added Mali.

According to him, in the past 12 years, in Serbia, 609 kilometers of highways and fast routes have been built, which is “more than was built from 1945 to 2012.”

Ministarstvo finansija Republike Srbije

Međunarodni monetarni fond-MMF Beograd

IMF

Siniša Mali