Savic calls for austerity and investments

KOPAONIK - Serbia needs to conduct a fiscal consolidation in order to reduce public spending, President of the Council of the Governor of the National Bank of Serbia Nebojsa Savic has said.

"When it comes to the current policy and reforms, we have on one side a monetary policy that succeeded in stabilizing the inflation at a low level, but we also have a high fiscal deficit that has been growing since 2008 and is now at 7 percent of GDP," he told Tanjug on Tuesday, after a panel discussion on macroeconomic stability, which was organized within the Kopaonik Business Forum.

Measures towards fiscal consolidation are necessary, and that means reducing public expenditure when it comes to spending and increasing it when it comes to capital investments, he noted.
"There is no dilemma in that sense, as to whether we should save or invest, because both are needed in the right places," he stated.

If there is no fiscal consolidation, Serbia risks not being able to service its debts, he pointed out.

Photo Tanjug, N. Jovanovic