4 July 2017 The members of the Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of Public Spending and the delegation of the International Monetary Fund

4 July 2017 The members of the Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of Public Spending and the delegation of the International Monetary Fund

Tuesday, 4 July 2017

Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of Public Spending Members Meet with IMF Delegation

The members of the Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of Public Spending met today at the National Assembly with the delegation of the International Monetary Fund currently visiting Belgrade to discuss the economic situation, reforms and Republic of Serbia’s budget procedure and priorities.


Dr Aleksandra Tomic, Chairperson of the Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of Public Spending, presented the National Assembly and the Committee’s duties as regards the adoption of the national budget and control of its spending. She said that the first four months of the year exhibited positive macroeconomic trends which in turn allowed the country to continue the reform process and address issues concerning local self-government budgets and public enterprise reforms.

James Roof, head of the IMF delegation visiting Belgrade to assess the results of Serbia’s stand-by arrangement, first apologised to the Committee members because the meeting, initially scheduled for the previous day, was postponed. He said that the IMF’s role is advisory, it is there to help the Government reach its objectives, conduct reforms and balance public finance. Roof commended the results achieved so far and the state-of-play of Serbia’s budget, stressing that the key is for Serbia to continue the reform process, especially in public administration which is still to reach the set objectives. The National Bank of Serbia’s rate is steady and the economic growth is higher than expected, said the head of the IMF delegation adding that Serbia still has to invest considerable efforts to maintain these positive trends. Strengthening of the private sector and monetary influx through higher employment in it are crucial, said James Roof.

The meeting was also attended by the following members and substitute members of the Committee on Finance, State Budget and Control of Public Spending: Vojislav Vujic, Radmilo Kostic, Dr Milorad Mijatovic, Goran Kovacevic, Dusan Bajatovic, Veroljub Arsic, Prof. Dr Vladimir Marinkovic, Zoran Bojanic, Momo Colakovic, Goran Ciric, Milan Lapcevic and Sasa Radulovic.

They talked about the sustainability of the positive macroeconomic results, further activities concerning public administration and public fund management reform, reform of public enterprises, effects of public spending and current expenditure control, possible reduction in the tax contributions on salaries and taxes in general which are high, reform of the pension and disability system, financial problems in the budgets of local self-governments, addressing education and healthcare system problems and creating an environment that would prevent the drain of experts. They concluded that the key is to enable the growth of the private sector which would boost employment and change the rate of pension allotments secured from the budget, enable salary growth and keep the experts in the country.

They also said that it was good that the IMF had talked to the MPs, allowed them to exchange views and get some answers and said they expected to have more meetings of this kind in the future.



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friday, 29 march
  • 9.00 - the National Assembly Speaker meets with the Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia (National Assembly House, 13 Nikola Pasic Square, Speaker’s Cabinet)

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