"IMF deal on wages will be respected"

Serbian Minister of Finance Diana Dragutinovic said that she will respect the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Under it, state budget wages and pensions in Serbia will be unfrozen in 2011. "IMF deal on wages will be respected" Dragutinovic but also indicated that there is a possibility of increasing the one-time bonus for pensioners, so that the overall sum goes from RSD 2bn to about RSD 3.5bn. Asked whether she will request an approval of the IMF to unfreeze wages and pensions, as announced by Minister of Economy Mladjan Dinkic on Wednesday, Dragutinovic told B92 that she would act as a finance minister should act, because to her "a law is a law“. The minister of finance evaluated that there will be nothing unusual if Dinkic goes before the IMF with his own proposal for unfreezing of wages and pensions, underscoring that at the end of the talks with IMF representatives an agreement will be reached which will be backed by the Serbian government as a whole, i.e. unanimously. Asked whether the government has made a decision on one-time lump sum of aid to pensioners, Dragutinovic gave a negative response, adding that she believes that the assistance should be paid to the poorest retirement strata, but that the poverty threshold has to be determined first. There are different options in the game - depending on whether it will be pensioners who receive below the average of RSD 22,000 or below RSD 15,000 a month, a different amount (of aid) is in question, said Dragutinovic, recalling that the IMF agreed earlier this year to pay a total of around two billion dinars to pensioners, which does not leave a possibility of paying RSD 5,000 per pensioner. “What I believe we should negotiate and what I think would be a change in the arrangement in regard to pensioners is to allocate a somewhat bigger amount, such as RSD 3.5 billion, for example," said she.

"IMF deal on wages will be respected"

Dragutinović but also indicated that there is a possibility of increasing the one-time bonus for pensioners, so that the overall sum goes from RSD 2bn to about RSD 3.5bn.

Asked whether she will request an approval of the IMF to unfreeze wages and pensions, as announced by Minister of Economy Mlađan Dinkić on Wednesday, Dragutinović told B92 that she would act as a finance minister should act, because to her "a law is a law“.

The minister of finance evaluated that there will be nothing unusual if Dinkić goes before the IMF with his own proposal for unfreezing of wages and pensions, underscoring that at the end of the talks with IMF representatives an agreement will be reached which will be backed by the Serbian government as a whole, i.e. unanimously.

Asked whether the government has made a decision on one-time lump sum of aid to pensioners, Dragutinović gave a negative response, adding that she believes that the assistance should be paid to the poorest retirement strata, but that the poverty threshold has to be determined first.

There are different options in the game - depending on whether it will be pensioners who receive below the average of RSD 22,000 or below RSD 15,000 a month, a different amount (of aid) is in question, said Dragutinović, recalling that the IMF agreed earlier this year to pay a total of around two billion dinars to pensioners, which does not leave a possibility of paying RSD 5,000 per pensioner.

“What I believe we should negotiate and what I think would be a change in the arrangement in regard to pensioners is to allocate a somewhat bigger amount, such as RSD 3.5 billion, for example," said she.