F. Council: Deficit, public enterprises remain challenges

F. Council: Deficit, public enterprises remain challenges

Despite the good results, the state of Serbia's public finances is far from good and the road to a full recovery will be long, the Council warned.

The enormous public debt, which will rise to EUR 26 bln - or 78 pct of GDP - by the end of the year is the biggest problem, the Council said.

For a full recovery of public finances, the public debt should be reduced to much below 60 pct of GDP, it said in a document titled "Fiscal trends in 2016, consolidation and reforms in 2916-2020".

The umbrella fiscal objective of the new government should be a reduction of the government deficit to 0.5 of GDP by 2019, the document said.

The government should present a firm medium-term plan to reduce the public debt-to-GDP ratio, the Council said.