Dušan Vujović

BELGRADE - Serbia's Minister of Finance Dusan Vujovic has said that the budget surplus recorded in January and February was based on higher revenue and lower expenditure.

Revenue went up thanks to VAT collection and excise taxes, but also because of non-tax revenue that includes dividends paid by government companies, he told Radio and Television of Serbia on Wednesday.

KOPAONIK - The negative economic growth rate will continue in the first quarter of this year and the positive growth is expected to start in the second quarter and last by the end of the year, Finance Minister Dusan Vujovic said on Tuesday.

"Economic growth starting in second quarter"

KOPAONIK -- The negative economic growth rate will continue in the first quarter while positive growth is expected to start in the second quarter Dusan Vujovic says.

That trend would continue through 2015, according to the finance minister.

Aleksandar Vucic, the Serbian Prime Minister, was due to open the 22nd annual Kopaonik Business Forum, held at Mt Kopaonik from March 3 to 5.

The gathering will must a record number of 600 participants, including businessmen, government officials, economic experts and representatives of banks and international financial organisations.

BELGRADE - Serbian Minister of Finance Dusan Vujovic announced on Thursday the adoption of a new law on fees, which will envisage the introduction of an electronic system for filing and paying fees.

He said that a working group tasked with drafting the law was formed two days ago, adding that this document will be drafted in the next few months.

Cabinet ministers attend Blair's lecture, keep mum

BELGRADE -- B92 learned exclusively that former British Prime Minister Tony Blair was in Belgrade on Wednesday where he spoke in front of several cabinet ministers.

The visit that included the one-hour lecture was shrouded in secrecy.

BELGRADE - Serbia's Minister of Finance Dusan Vujovic has said that he would present by July the plan for a reduction of jobs in the public sector, and added that the new arrangement with the IMF would help the dinar strangthen further.

Public debt increase trend "will not persist"

BELGRADE -- The tendency of increase of Serbia's public debt reported in January "will not continue in February," Finance Minister Dusan Vujovic has said.

The public debt reached around EUR 23.2 billion or 72.3 percent of the country's GDP on January 31.

BELGRADE - Interest among French companies in doing business in Serbia was up by over 100 percent in 2014 compared to 2013, the president of the French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce Patrick Collin has said after a meeting of Serbian government officials and members of the Chamber in Belgrade.

BELGRADE - The tendency of increase of Serbia's public debt, which totalled around EUR 23.2 billion or 72.3 percent of the country's GDP on January 31, will not continue in February because the country recorded a budget surplus in the first 50 days of the year, Finance Minister Dusan Vujovic stated on Tuesday.