Mirko Cvetkovic’s interview to Politika daily, June 11, 2007 - There are Funds, We should be Careful with Spending

The major share of the budget funds will, this year again, be spent on public sector employees’ wages and transfers to the social insurance funds, reveals the Minister of Finance Mirko Cvetkovic.

This year Serbian budget will receive much more than 500 billion dinars in revenues, or looking from the other angle, budget beneficiaries appetites will have to stop below 600 billion dinars. Revenues and expenditure, as it was already announced, will be balanced, and the dilemma whether the state will post a deficit or surplus in its balance sheet has been cleared: the first post election budget will be in a mild deficit – definitely under one percent of gross domestic product.

It is hard to say whether it was more difficult for the new Serbian Minister Mirko Cvetkovic to persuade beneficiaries of the state coffers to align their requests with the reality of the things, or for us as hosts at the Politika’s business club to coax the Minister to reveal some details before budget calculations are finished. Nevertheless, we cannot be dissatisfied with the outcome – neither cannot be the Minister, who has managed to reduce the state deficit to below the amount he had announced, or us, who have learned “before due time” some of the figures that have been agreed.

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Mirko Cvetkovic’s interview to Politika daily, June 11, 2007 - There are Funds, We should be Careful with Spending