Dveri: Detrimental Bills Before Parliament Increase Serbia’s Debt

Tamara Milenkovic Kerkovic (BetaPhoto/UNS Press center)

A vice-president of the Serbian Movement Dveri, Tamara Milenkovic Kerkovic, said on July 19 that during an extraordinary session of the Parliament of Serbia a large number of bills that could hurt the public interest were presented to MPs, warning that if they were passed the state and citizens of Serbia would not only get poorer, but would need to pay billions of euros more to cover Serbia’s debt.

The Dveri MP said that the “problem of borrowing would not be as serious if Serbia’s growth rates were high enough for the country to pay its debts, but they fell to 1.5 percent and are the lowest in the Balkans.”

Milenkovic-Kerkovic explained that a decision to invest in roads instead of domestic production, agriculture and reduction of poverty could hardly justify the borrowing of that magnitude, which aside from the existing debt of EUR5,340 per capita would add another EUR250 per capita in a day.

The opposition MP recalled that during another session of the Parliament, in December 2022, when the budget bill was passed, Minister of Finance Sinisa Mali argued that Serbia’s finances were stable, but since they Serbia borrowed another EUR4.5 billion using securities.