Expert: Inflation already Affecting Poor Households in Serbia  

Pavle Petrovic (BETAPHOTO/MILAN OBRADOVIC)

Poor households in Serbia had already been affected by an inflation rate of between 10 and 15 percent, although the annual growth of all prices was 7.5 percent in November 2021, a professor emeritus of the Belgrade Faculty of Economics and the Fiscal Council president, Pavle Petrovic, said on Jan. 4.

“An acceleration in inflation in Serbia has an expressed social dimension as over the past year, the largest hikes were registered in prices of foodstuff and fuels, that is, the products on which the poorest consumers spent the largest portion of their income,” Petrovic told Belgrade daily Nova.

He also underlined the non-selective and unjustified nature of state aid to citizens to help ease the consequences of the crisis triggered by the coronavirus pandemic. “In 2020 and 2021, a total of some EUR1.3 billion was paid in financial assistance to adults and pensioners, while another relief package, envisaging RSD20,000 for each pensioner, has been announced for February 2022, which will drain another EUR290 million from the state budget. So, total non-selective allocations over three years will amount to nearly EUR1.6 billion,” Petrovic noted.