Starting in January next year, retirees, doctors, soldiers and other public sector employees can count on higher incomes, and some 300,000 workers who receive the minimum wage will also receive raises.
As announced yesterday by the Minister of Finance, Siniša Mali, retirees will have an increase of 5.9 percent. Thus, depending on the current amount, the pensions will go from 800 to 8,000 dinars, and the average will be higher by 1,600 dinars and will amount to 29,402 dinars.
Advisory price
Workers with the minimum wage, which now stands at 31,747 dinars, will receive 2,095 more dinars, or 33,842 dinars, following the 6.6 percent increase in January.
In January, doctors will immediately get the biggest raise of five percent, so their average salary will be more than 73,000 dinars. Members of the military will also receive a five percent raise in January, with a further 10 percent raise in April, but not linearly. The largest increase, as previously announced by Defense Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic, will have soldiers under contract: sergeants, corporals, junior sergeants, then NCOs, and the smallest increase will have officers. Other public sector employees will receive a 3.5 percent raise in January, but their salaries will increase by an additional 1.5 percent in April.
The Minister of Finance assessed that the increase in public sector salaries and pensions, which is foreseen in the budget proposal for 2021, cannot endanger the macroeconomic stability of the country, since its share in GDP is decreasing .
– This year, the share of wages in GDP is 10.4 percent and next year it will be 10 percent. The share of pensions will drop from 10.6 percent this year to 10.4 percent of GDP in 2021, he said in the Finance Committee of parliament.
Economic analyst prof. Dr. Stevica Dejanski says on behalf of Kurir that, while other countries are struggling to preserve their economy, Serbia is helping its citizens with such economic measures.
Helping citizens
– We have a situation that during the global crisis, Serbia has shown resilience and resistance to the problems caused by the corona pandemic, and this shows that the economic measures implemented in the country in the previous seven years gave good results, although they were difficult. . To some, this probably seems strange from the side that Serbia is now increasing wages and pensions, but I am convinced that this increase means something for citizens, although it may not be too big, but it is constant and will continue – he said. .
SINIŠA MALI
Better standards of living and investments
photo: Courier
Finance Minister Siniša Mali said that the two main pillars of the proposed budget for 2021 are raising the standard of living of citizens and increasing public investments, which are the ones that contribute the most to GDP growth. He told the Parliamentary Finance Commission session that the budget was planned based on the estimate that GDP growth will be six percent, and that total public investments will amount to 330 billion dinars, which is the 5th , 5 percent of GDP. He added that the restructuring program “Air Serbia” will be adopted by the end of the year.
