FINANCE MINISTRY: State not threatened by bankruptcy

The Serbian Finance Ministry said in a release on Saturday (23 June 2012) that there was no ground for voicing stands about Serbia being threatened by bankruptcy or public debt crisis, Tanjug news agency reports.

Commenting on certain allegations in the media that the government is facing bankruptcy and that the payment of social benefits to citizens is brought into question, the Finance Ministry noted that the government was regularly meeting its dues such as salaries, pensions, social welfare, transfers to other government levels and other obligations, including the recent payment of the old foreign exchange savings worth over EUR 200 million, and it would continue doing so in the next period.

The release notes that the economic situation in the country is serious and conditioned by the economic crisis in Europe, which is why the GDP growth has been reduced from 1.5 percent to 0.5 percent in 2012.

Still, there is no ground to voice stands about Serbia being threatened by bankruptcy or public debt crisis since it is a well-known fact that Serbia is one of the European countries with lower debt and its credit rating was increased and confirmed in the times of crisis, the Finance Ministry stated.

The new government needs to continue conducting a responsible economic policy, and it also has to carry out a budget deficit consolidation and continue cooperating with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) because this is the only way for Serbia to respond to economic challenges in the coming period and create conditions for an increase in the citizens' living standards, the release states.

This is why it is important for the new government to be constituted as soon as possible since the existing government in its technical mandate is not capable of adopting decisions and conducting programmes important for the country's economic recovery, the Finance Ministry stated in a release.