We have six billion euros in the account "which some countries that are seven times larger than our country do not have," he said Aleksandar Vučić at the end of September.
The president then added that "we can't spend that money as we want, but we have to reduce it." public debt".
Three months later, Serbia borrowed another billion euros.
Have we spent the six billion in the meantime? Of course we are not, that is, we are not all - in November Sinisa Mali boasted that we have 5,5 billion euros in our account, and that the state is completely liquid.
What will another billion debt do us?
As it is written in the Official Gazette of December 27, we took on debt due to the budget deficit, the refinancing of due obligations and due to projects that have a positive impact on the environment. The coupon rate is "small" - only 5,25 percent per year.
Why didn't we use those 5 or 6 billion euros lying in the account for these purposes?
There is no answer to that question.
Interest as much as you want
The questions to which there is an answer are - how much will we have to pay next year for the interest of all the borrowings and how much debt are we in general?
One billion and 900 million euros - that's a lot of money for Serbia. With that money, some of the decades-long problems of the citizens could be solved, after which they would have a much more dignified life than today.
However, Serbia will have to pay those 1,9 billion next year only for interest, which represents an increase of nearly 20 percent compared to 2024.
This is a consequence of reckless progressive borrowing, as if there is no tomorrow, and that money will be "invested" mostly in unnecessary things - the Expo (as much as four billion in 2025) and similar ventures, from which the citizens will have nothing.
Nothing - except new debts and high interest rates. Back then, the progressives rightly criticized the "yellow unpopular thieving government" when it took on debt with an interest rate of 7,25 percent (also for a billion, back then there were dollars).
Today, progressives routinely borrow 6, 7, 8 percent from commercial banks - Expo must not stop.
With the new 2025 billion euros taken, Serbia will exceed 39 billion euros in total debt at the beginning of 2011. At the end of 15, Serbia owed a little less than XNUMX billion.
Twenty-four billion euros later, one should ask: what was all that money spent on? Are all those new roads worth that much? What are the services that the state provides to citizens?
Is society more economically stratified than, say, in 2011, and where did the whole new untouchable caste of millionaires and billionaires in a poor country come from?
Beautifying statistics
Of course, public debt is not measured in absolute amount, but in relation to GDP. And when GDP grows more slowly than borrowing, there is the Republic's Statistical Office - in the last 10 years, the Statistical Office has even revised the gross domestic product three times, each time significantly upwards.
Therefore, relative indebtedness is not formally a problem, as it is below 50 percent of GDP.
But, as the Fiscal Council warns, that doesn't mean much: at the end of 2023, the interest on our debt of "50 percent of GDP" cost 1,8 percent of GDP, while France, which was in debt at 110 percent of GDP allocated proportionally less than Serbia - 1,7 percent of GDP.
The appetites of the progressives for spending led to the point that the trend of falling fiscal deficit was reversed: during the corona crisis, it was understandably huge and since then it has been falling, down to 2,2 percent.
The rebalancing of the budget for 2024 increased the deficit to 2,9 percent, and the shamefully adopted budget for 2025 foresees a fiscal deficit of three percent of GDP.
Is that much?
It's hot. The Fiscal Council also warns of this as a "danger".
But there is every chance that the dance will continue. High interest rates and high inflation do not prevent the authorities from further borrowing and increasing spending.
Non-transparent spending of money, unnecessary keeping of money in the account, senseless priorities, squandering for the sake of buying the support of the voters - until then, the progressives are throwing around and have no intention of changing anything.
