“(Serbian) President Aleksandar Vučić is appealing to the European Central Bank to stop the dollar from growing stronger, while only three weeks ago he boasted of having secured the country a new loan in dollars from his friend, Sheikh bin Zayed,” says the editor-in-chief of NIN weekly, Milan Ćulibrk.
“Even without the billions from the United Arab Emirates, the dollar share of Serbia’s total debt is about 12 per cent, based on which Serbia’s debt has increased by more than 68 billion dinars only due to the stronger dollar,” Ćulibrk said and added:”An additional problem is that we pay for oil, gas and all energy products in dollars.”
According to him, Serbia’s economic growth is likely to be between 3 and 3.5 per cent this year, but the living standard will not increase.
Ćulibrk adds that the country is facing further price growth, while it seems that prices that have been capped by the state have increased more than those that are not capped. As he puts it, ‘the state has limited the price of the white (Sava) bread to 53 dinars a loaf, which you cannot buy anywhere, and yet one scone costs 70 dinars’.
Talking about the fact that it’s been exactly 185 days of waiting for the new government to be formed, Ćulibrk notes that the current PM, Ana Brnabić, will break another record – she will be the PM with the longest term in the office, and yet, as Ćulibrk puts it, she hasn’t made a single decision by herself.
“Everyone is waiting for the president to secure enough fuel and food or stop the dollar from growing stronger, and that’s actually the government’s job,” he concluded.
(N1, 06.10.2022)
This post is also available in: Italiano