Serbia and EU Reach Agreement on Six Recommendations for Mitigating Economic Consequences of the Pandemic

Serbia and the EU have reached an agreement on six recommendations which concern the additional mitigation of the negative impact of the spreading of coronavirus on the growth and the employment through adequate discretionary measures of fiscal policy, support to economic recovery through an increase of capital spending directed at growth, in the sense of an increased share of consumption in the GDP in 2020 and in the medium term.

Also, an agreement was reached on improving the management of state-owned companies, among other means, through restructuring, announced the Ministry of Finance after the ministerial dialogue between the ministers of economy and finance of EU member states, the countries of the Western Balkans and Turkey.

The meeting, which was held in the form of a video conference, was attended by representatives of the European Commission and the European Central Bank. Finance Minister Sinisa Mali and National Bank of Serbia Governor Jorgovanka Tabakovic participated on Serbia's behalf.

Economic reform programs were presented at the meeting, and the main topic was how to mitigate the economic consequences of coronavirus.

The recommendations also concern the close monitoring of challenges to financial stability that are the result of the coronavirus pandemic and taking adequate measures. Those measures pertain to securing an efficient, transparent and non-discriminatory support to the affected companies, taking measures to maintain employment through short-term programs and effective measures of active labor market policy, as well as to improve social transfers that would enable adequate support to people with low income, who are at risk of poverty or social exclusion.

– Serbia was praised today by the European Commission for its economic reforms and the results achieved in the past period, in 2019, and for the measures of help to the citizens and the economy, intended to mitigate the consequences suffered by the local economy due to the pandemic – Serbian Finance Minister Sinisa Mali said.

After the conference of the EU Council for Economic and Financial Affairs, which was organized through a video link, Mali said that the online meeting had been an opportunity for all the finance ministers from the Western Balkans to present their economic policy measures, taken in an attempt to fight the negative consequences of COVID-19.

– Serbia met the crisis with healthy public finances, with enough money in the budget, with high enough FX reserves and four years of budget surplus behind it – Mali reminded.

Ministarstvo finansija Republike Srbije

European Commission

European Central Bank

Sinisa Mali

pandemic

coronavirus

economic consequences of the pandemic

restructuring state companies

increasing capital consumption

measures of support to the real sector

welfare

maintaining employment