Finance Minister: Average salary already at € 520-530 in Serbia

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Serbia's Finance Minister Sinisa Mali stated that the total state aid to the economy and citizens from the beginning of the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic will amount to €6 billion, or about 12.7 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of Serbia.

„We want the citizens not to feel the crisis as much as possible and for the less damaged to come out of this pandemic. Last December, we fulfilled the goal we defined at the beginning of fiscal consolidation – that the average salary in Serbia reaches €500. It’s now between €520 and €530,“ Mali said.

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The Minister reiterated that from January 1, 2021, pensions in Serbia will be increased by 5.9 percent, minimum wages by 6.6 percent, salaries in health care by five percent, while other employees in the public sector will receive higher incomes by 3.5 percent, and announced an additional salary increase of 1.5 percent for April 1, 2021.

„We had a better VAT collection at the end of November which we expected,“ Mali told Vecernje Novosti, explaining where the money came from on December 17 and 18 to pay €38.81 to Euro-pensioners and one minimum wage to workers in the hospitality, hotel, tourism and car rental industries.

Mali said that no foreign investor stopped investing in Serbia due to the coronavirus pandemic, that the value of the foreign direct investment was 1.9 billion Serbian dinars in the first nine months, and that 60 percent of all investments in the Western Balkans came to Serbia.

He stated that the dinar exchange rate will remain stable, and that dinar is worth the same today, if not more than in March, when the coronavirus epidemic started.