BELGRADE, July 5 (Xinhua) -- In the past year of the new Serbian government, the country managed to attract investments, build infrastructure and improve its economic outlooks, Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said at a ceremony on Thursday, marking the period as very successful.
Brnabic and ministers gathered in the northern Serbian city of Subotica, some 300 km away from the capital where they held a press conference, estimating the results achieved since they took over the mandate in June 2017.
In her address, Brnabic said that on July 4 this year the surplus in the budget amounted to 29.7 billion RSD (292 million U.S. dollars), while the public debt decreased to 59.6 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).
Moreover, foreign companies invested more than 1.1 billion euros, which is a 160 million-euro (16 percent) increase compared with the same period last year, she pointed out, adding that the growth in the first quarter this year amounts to 4.6 percent of the GDP.
Brnabic estimated that the living standards of people improved in the first year of the government and announced that the fiscal consolidation measures that included reduction of pensions and salaries in public sector in 2014 will soon be annulled.
She said salaries in the past 12 months increased between 5 and 10 percent and the pensions will increase by 7.2 percent in average during the second year of the government.
At the same time 81 billion RSD (around 797.8 million U.S. dollars) was invested in road and railway infrastructure.
She continued that Serbia climbed to 43rd position out of 190 countries on the Doing Business list of the World Bank, which "proclaimed Serbia for the leader in the implementation of reforms in the South East Europe".
Brnabic reminded that the country successfully ended the three-year precaution arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and signed a new non-financial one "to secure the continuation of structural reforms".
Moreover, 35 new agreements with foreign investors worth more than 250 million euros will open 9,227 new jobs, while Brnabic expressed expectations that at the upcoming 16+1 summit of China and Central and Eastern Eurpean (CEE) countries in Sofia several new agreements will be signed.
The government led by Brnabic was elected at the parliament on June 30 last year, after the former Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic resigned earlier to become the new president. (1 U.S. dollar=100.95 Serbian Dinar, or RSD)
