Minister: Goal is to reduce public debt and deficit

Minister: Goal is to reduce public debt and deficit

BELGRADE -- Dusan Vujovic said on Tuesday the fundamental goal of the new three-year arrangement with the IMF was to reduce the public debt share in GDP by 2017.

Another is to lower the budget deficit to around 3 percent of GDP, the finance minister said.

The arrangement is based on three pillars of the reforms, fiscal consolidation, financial sector consolidation and structural reforms, including the reforms involving government companies meant to make them more efficient, Vujovic told a news conference following the 100th meeting of the government, which was open to the public, and Monday's decision by the IMF to approve the arrangement with Serbia.

Serbia cannot deal with the economic crisis without reforms and has to solve structural issues, change laws and improve efficiency of government companies in order to achieve economic growth, he stated.

The reforms involve restructuring of government companies, solutions for large companies among them who record losses, further fiscal consolidation, a stable monetary policy and a reform of the public sector, Vujovic pointed out.

"The implementation of the program will be monitored by the government, National Bank of Serbia and IMF together," he said.

Commenting on the situation with the budget deficit, he stressed that Serbia was on a good way to achieve the goals set for the first quarter of 2015, adding that a budget deficit of RSD 55 billion was the goal for the first quarter.

"We expect it to be lower by at least RSD 20 billion, if not halved," Vujovic said, adding that the government's goal was to cut the budget deficit to 4.75 percent of GDP by 2017 and reduce the public debt-to-GDP ratio,...