Public enterprise losses 2.2 times higher than elsewhere

BELGRADE - The loss recorded with public enterprises is 2.2 times higher than that recorded with the rest of the economy in 2013 and it added up to RSD 51 billion, as against the RSD 23 billion recorded with other companies, Nova Ekonomija weekly published on Wednesday.

Around 1,200 people were taken on as additional workforce in public enterprises in 2013, while the number of employees in other companies dropped by over 18,000.

A total of 520 public enterprises filed their final financial reports to the Serbian Business Registers Agency, and according to the reports, public companies ended the financial year of 2013 with the losses worth RSD 50.65 billion.

In the previous year, public enterprises had a negative impact on the total economic loss.

The negative result recorded by public enterprises to the total value of RSD 50.65 is by 6.7 percent lower than in the year before, when it totalled RSD 54.5 billion.

The public enterprise sector remains one of the most important areas in terms of the results of the overall Serbian economy, since 13.6 percent of total funds and 19.3 percent of total capital are invested in public companies.

Still, as many as 10.4 percent of cumulative losses of the entire economy are also recorded in the public enterprise sector.

As of 2008, the number of employees in firms has been continuously dropping, and this trend continued in 2013, when the number of employees dropped by 18,970.

Nevertheless, the number of employees in public enterprises increased by 1,248 in 2013, thus totalling 98,182.

Apart from public enterprises, a significant stake in the negative economic results was also recorded with restructuring companies included in the...