Radar: Budget Deficit Twice as High as During the Pandemic

Sinisa Mali (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

In the first three months alone the Serbian budget deficit surpassed RSD96 billion or EUR818 million which is 245 percent higher than in the first quarter of 2025 when the gap was RSD27.8 billion or EUR237 million, the Radar website reported on April 16.

An additional problem for Finance Minister Sinisa Mali is the fact that the biggest budget deficit was achieved in the first three months back at the time of the 2018 castling when then Belgrade mayor Mali switched seats and became a minister.

The deficit is actually a record in the modern history of Serbian finance. The extent of the (un)expected budget problems can also be seen in the fact that the deficit in the first quarter was more than double the size of the deficit during the first three months of 2020 the year of the pandemic when the deficit was RSD46.3 billion meaning that it was RSD50 billion lower than now.

The increasingly poor state of Serbian finance is not just a result of rising energy prices, due to which the state has been forced to give up a portion of its revenues from (already high) fuel excise. Even before the crisis caused by the war in the Middle East, Serbian finance began faltering. In January last year, for example, Minister Mali could boast a surplus of RSD5.5 billion as opposed to a deficit of as much as RSD37.6 billion in the same month this year.