Public economics

BELGRADE - Serbian Finance Minister Dusan Vujovic said Monday that the proposal for the 2015 budget was the first budget to predict savings at all points and was changing the trend of budget revenues, which was beginning to grow, opening the way for Serbia to get out of crisis.

A drop of 15 per cent in the sales tax imposed on tourist services has been welcomed by the Romanian tourism industry.

...

Ivan Boykov, Executive Director of the Bulgarian Construction Chamber, has warned about the impact of a loss of funding by end-2014.

IMF: Unemployment, public debt, budget deficit problems

BELGRADE -- IMF Mission to Serbia head Zuzana Murgasova said on Thursday that the international financial institution reached an agreement with the Serbian government.

It concerns a new three-year precautionary arrangement of around EUR 1 billion.

BELGRADE - The individual public tender calls for the privatisation of 502 enterprises can be expected some time in December since the collective tender was called on August 15, and the first privatisations should be realised in January, acting director of the Privatisation Agency Marijana Radovanovic said on Monday.

BELGRADE - Solving the issues of excess workforce and land ownership should be the government's priorities in bringing the privatisation process to a conclusion, said the participants of Monday's presentation of Privatisation in Serbia, a study conducted by the National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED) with support from the USAID.

The country's umbrella union representing workers in the private sector, known by its Greek acronym GSEE, on Friday called a 24-hour strike for November 27 to protest austerity measures being enforced as part of Greece's loan agreement with international creditors.

While Greece came top among European Union states in terms of improving its value-added tax deficit in 2012, it still ranks among those with the biggest problems in VAT collection.

Political parties in Bulgaria have increased their subsidies 10 times in the past ten years, according to calculations of the Finance Ministry.

Political parties were first granted state funding in 2002, the total amount standing at BGN 4.500 million.

Two years later, the amount of the subsidies increased to a rate of over BGN 5.356 million, according to Trud daily.

The government has launched a charm offensive to entice municipalities across Greece to use public-private partnerships, or PPPs, to accelerate investment and spur growth in the debt-hit country, Kathimerini understands.