Politicians voice stands for and against IMF measures

Politicians voice stands for and against IMF measures

Early parliamentary elections will be held on Sunday. The IMF mission arrived in Belgrade on February 26 and will stay in the country until March 13.

Addressing the gathering on Serbia's economic direction and the 2014 elections, Vice President of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) Dušan Bajatović said that he is against the implementation of IMF measures because these cannot contribute to the economic growth of any country, Serbia included.

This does not means that the talks with the IMF should not take place, Bajatović said and added that it should be borne in mind that the measures recommended by the international financial institution can entail high costs for the country.

The economy of growth which Serbia needs cannot be based on IMF rules, Bajatović said.

The candidate of the list "Enough of That" and former Minister of Economy Saša Radulović replied that the task of IMF is not to draft Serbia's economic growth plans but instead to assess the country's success in this sense and rate the quality of its fiscal policy.

IMF does not dictate anything, it simply assesses if our plans are realistic and it is willing to provide assistance in case we are willing to help ourselves, Radulović said.

Serbia has "a crony economy and a parasitical system" and it is not willing to dismantle them, Radulović said and underscored that there is no will to carry out difficult reforms.

Replying to reporters' question as to whether the party that conducts economic reforms would have a problem with the political rating, Dušan Nikezić of the Democratic Party (DS) stated that the rating would even improve if the reforms produce positive results, which means that they need to be designed well.

Nikezić said that DS supports opening of 20 regional centers around Serbia and added that EUR 600 million should be invested to this end instead of spending the money on severance pays for employees of restructuring companies.

The DS official said that the economic model maintained by the outgoing government, based on cuts in citizens' income and increase of taxes, cannot produce positive results.

Nikezić said that small and mid-size companies need to be given support and economic incentives in order to increase exports, adding that revitalization of agricultural combines is also required.

Bajatović noted that in some two years, Serbia's GDP needs to be at EUR 50-60 billion annually and if the country fails to achieve it, not a single political group will have a chance of success. He underscored that Serbia's public debt would thus drop below 60 percent of the GDP.

Radulovćc said that the government needs to create a favorable economic environment and the economy will then easily ensure higher production output and employment.