Mali: New Aid for Companies Doing Business with Ukraine

Sinisa Mali (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV/MO)

Serbian Finance Minister Sinisa Mali said that the Government of Serbia would pass an ordinance on May 19 to assist 1,400 companies whose operations were targeted at Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.

“Favorable loans will be provided, with a five-year repayment time frame, and a two-year grace period,” Mali said at the conference “How Resilient Serbian Economy is to Global Crises and Challenges,” hosted by the Serbian Chamber of Commerce.

The minister said that Serbia was far from recession, and that its economy grew steadily, despite the challenges it had been facing due to the prolonged coronavirus pandemic and conflicts in Ukraine, generating inflation, problems in supply chains and a new energy crisis.

“Every macroeconomic indicator is completely stable. The public debt to GDP ratio is 52.1 percent, far below the EU standard of 60 percent of GDP. The unemployment rate is between 10 and 11 percent – the same as before the crisis broke out. This year’s deficit will not exceed three percent, as VAT collection is far better than expected. A 4.3% growth rate was reported in the first quarter, and is expected to drop to 3.7 percent in the second quarter,” Mali shared the statistics.

The finance minister recalled that the Government of Serbia had taken a series of steps to protect the citizens and businesses, including a controlled fuel price, the same electricity prices, the lowest gas prices in Europe and a limit on basic food prices. Minister Mali also said that one-off aid programs had been carried out to support pensioners, education and healthcare workers and young people aged between 16 and 29.