Serbian FinMin denies payments are part of election campaign

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Finance Minister Sinisa Mali denied on Tuesday that the Serbian authorities are making payouts and promises as part of their campaign for the elections next spring.

Speaking live on the state TV (RTS) morning news, Mali recalled that the government gave all adult Serbians financial aid this year and last, with another 20 Euro being paid out this week. “We are not doing things that are important to the citizens because of the elecctions. We have been implementing an economic policy aimed at growth and a rise in living standards for years. The economy does not define policy in any way. The implemented measures were meant to deal with the negative consequences of Covid-19,” the Finance Minister said.

The government is set to pay a total of 5,801,859 adult citizens the 20 Euro as aid to deal with the pandemic. Earlier this year, payments of 50 Euro were made to pensioners as well as two installments of 30 Euro each to adults and 60 Euro to the unemployed and two installments of 100 Euro each for Serbian citizens living in Kosovo.

He claimed that Serbia was seeing fewer consequences of the crisis that developed countries and repeated the claim made by a number of state officials that the country will have the highest growth rate in Europe. “This year growth will stand at 7.3 percent and last year it was at -0.9 percent. The economy is winning during the biggest economic crisis every,” he said and added that Serbia is approaching the living standards of developed countries much more quickly than expected.
Mali said that the government will publish its aid package for newborns and housing loans over the next few days.
He also repeated claims of higher average salaries and pensions and that the government is not planning to get loans on the international capital market.