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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Preservation of fiscal policy as government priority

Belgrade, 28 February 2020

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic spoke today with Head of the IMF Mission Jan Kees Martijn about the realisation of reform goals to date under the current programme Instrument for Policy Coordination, which will be implemented until January 2021.

Brnabic pointed out that 2019 ended with excellent economic results and added that she is very pleased with the economic growth of 4.2 percent, which is much higher than projected.

She said that the high economic growth continues this year, with initial estimates showing that it stood at 6.5 percent in January.

The Prime Minister underlined that Serbia managed to record high economic growth despite numerous challenges, such as the slowdown in the economies of its largest foreign trade partners - Italy and Germany, and despite the tariffs imposed by Pristina.

The Prime Minister also emphasised that exports in the ICT sector in the previous year were about twice as high as in 2016 and amounted to €1.42 billion.

The Serbian government has proven that change is possible, she said, expressing her belief that the conditions were created for the ICT sector to grow further in the coming period.

According to her, the priorities in the future will be to continue reforms in the sector of public enterprises, as well as environmental investments.

Martijn said that it is good that Serbia has stable finances, a strong banking system and high foreign exchange reserves, which provide strong protection and the ability to amortise external financial shocks.

He also praised the tax administration reform, pointing out that all the reforms implemented are paying off today.

The IMF Mission Head also said that he is open to dialogue on making the "Swiss formula" more flexible so that pensions could grow even more, on which Prime Minister Brnabic thanked him in particular