According to official EU statistics, Serbian GDP by purchasing power (per capita) in 2013 was 2,8 times lower than the European average. Real consumption per inhabitant, which more precisely measures the standard of living (including health and education services, which are not directly paid for), is lower by almost two and a half times than the average of EU countries. We are worse off than Bulgaria and Romania. In Bulgaria and Romania, the GDP by purchasing power last year was 14,5, or 13.400 dollars per capita, in contrast to 11.269 dollars here. The Croats, with as much as 18.200 dollars, are far ahead of us.
The purchasing power of Serbian citizens has a constant tendency to decrease, so in May it was lower than in April of this year, and to cover the average consumer basket, 1,49 of average earnings were needed, which amounted to 44.184 dinars (380 euros).
According to the Poverty Index, Serbia is in the infamous sixth place in the world. The poverty index is the result of the sum of the unemployment rate (21,2 percent) and annual inflation (2,1 percent), and the higher the sum, the greater the poverty.
Interannual inflation in Serbia in June fell to the lowest level in the last 50 years and amounted to only 1,3 percent, the National Bank of Serbia announced in August, but at the same time, there are currently 769.340 unemployed people on the records of the National Employment Service.
More than 600.000 people in Serbia receive permanent or occasional financial assistance.
According to the poverty index, which was released less than six months ago by the American Institute "Keito", Serbia was third in the world, behind Venezuela and Iran, out of 90 countries in the survey. That index was calculated on the basis of inflation rates, unemployment, GDP growth and interest rates.
One of the indicators of poverty is the number of citizens who eat in soup kitchens. 76 people are fed (receive one meal a day) in 35.170 soup kitchens. Of these, 11.695 are minors, and 8151 children are under the age of 14.
In Serbia, according to official statistical data, every fourth citizen, that is 1,8 million people, lives on the poverty line, so it is not surprising that the competent state authorities announce a new strategy to fight poverty. According to the methodology of the Republic Institute of Statistics (RZS), the poverty risk threshold in 2012 was 13.680 dinars per month for a one-member household, for a family of three the threshold is 24.624 dinars, and for a family of four it is 28.728 dinars.
That strategy will have to take into account that, according to the RZS calculation, the poverty rate in our country is 24,6 percent, which puts Serbia in first place among the poor countries of Europe. In bankrupt Greece, that rate is 23,1 percent, and in countries in the region it is 22,6 percent (Romania) and 21,2 percent (Bulgaria).
A quarter of the inhabitants of the European Union are faced with the risk of poverty, according to a study by the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Research, in which it is pointed out that poverty affects countries with austerity policies the most.
The differences between the rich and the poor within the EU are large - from 2120 euros, the average annual salary in Romania, to 32.780 euros in Luxembourg. France, for example, is in the middle, with 20.600 euros per year, that is, 1720 euros per month per inhabitant.
Compared to the 28 EU countries, the Republic of Serbia had the highest rate of risk of poverty.
According to data from the SILC survey (Income and Living Conditions Survey), 42,1 percent (three million) of the population of the Republic of Serbia are exposed to the risk of poverty or social exclusion. That value is significantly higher than the average value of the 28 EU countries (24,8 percent) and the average of the newest 12 member states without Croatia (30,7 percent).
Observed by components, a total of 24,6 percent (1,76 million) of the population of the Republic of Serbia are at risk of poverty, 27 percent (1,92 million) are in a situation of extreme material deprivation and 13,6 percent live in households with low work intensity (972.000).
On the other hand, drastic economic stratification is at work in Serbia. According to the coefficient of economic inequality of 38 points in 2013, our country is officially the poorest in Europe. While the richest citizen of Serbia earned more than 200.000 euros per month last year, until then almost half a million people made ends meet with incomes of around 100 euros.
The statistical service of the EU (Eurostat) notes that Serbia, with an inequality coefficient of 38, was, next to Macedonia, the country with the largest increase in economic inequality in Europe last year.
Even more worrying is the fact that the coefficient of financial inequality has drastically increased only in the last four years, since in 2009 it was a bearable 27,8.
According to a global wealth report by a Singapore research firm Wealth X, there were exactly 2013 multimillionaires in Serbia in 100, compared to 90 in 2012. The total assets of Serbian multimillionaires amounted to 2013 billion dollars in 12, compared to ten billion from the previous year.
Serbia took the 79th place in the list of the richest countries in the world, published by the World Bank based on data on GDP per capita for 2013. Serbia took that relatively high place among 215 ranked countries thanks to an income of 5935 dollars per inhabitant, while in 2012 that figure was $5.294.
