Living standard in Serbia getting worse

we survived on chunks of bread and milk and we survived on sometimes just broth being a Serb=hard life anywhere these days.We will survive.

Surprised anybody?

This problem is known all over the world and it spells IMF & world bank. The money lenderers political demands may be good bussness for these global oligarchs but devastating for anybody else especially small countries like Serbia.

It's all very well blaming the IMF, but why are they here in the first place? Because of the disastrous policies of this and the previous governments who have allowed a privileged few to control all the wealth of the country, because of the cheerful denial of this government of any effects of the world economic crisis and their refusal to take adequate measures until it was too late, and now that the world recession is receding, their attempts to blame everything on the aforementioned crisis and their refusal to recognize their own mistakes. In fact, the only concrete action they are taking over this whole mess is an attempt to muzzle the press in order to save face and avoid public criticism. Slobo would be proud of them.

Nik, the only reason why our living standard fell bellow those of your mentioned countries is because of the bombing. In 1997 and 1998 life in Serbia was better than in say Bulgaria. The West could not stand that we were better off.

Jovan, in the past we owned what was in Serbia. Now most things are foreign owned, so that puts this whole situation in a different context than before.

Celt, the IMF and World Bank came in AFTER Slobo. They did not come in just now, they were here since the year 2000. If you had not noticed, our debt has been booming since Slobo got kicked out. You ignore the main reason why they are here... they are institutions that represent economic development programs that the West wants to impose. The few controlling wealth of the country is a post-2000 phenomenon, as income inequality is only higher now than in was in Milosevic's era.

Albi, since albanian politicians both in Kosovo and Albania proper are pursuing the same "head in the sand and hand in your pocket" policies as the bunch currently making our lives a misery, you are hardly in a position to comment and Nik, I would agree with you except for one thing, you can't rethink something that doesn't exist.

I agree that Slobo would be proud of them. The resources of a government can be spent on productive policies, or on plane tickets for Jeremic and Co. Serbia's government can take care of its citizens, or can spend the money to antagonize Albanians. Apparently doesn't have the resources to do both.

There were times when Serbian living standard was envied by the Hungarians, not to mention the Bulgarians and thje Romanians. But 20 years of wrong policy has left the Serbs behind, even before the crisis struck everyone. It is time to rething the entire strategy of national developmeni.

The decline in prosperity started decades ago, and was one of the major factors in the more prosperous regions like Slovenia and Croatia wanting to leave. Yugoslav products were considered better than Soviet ones and were held in high esteem in Warsaw pact countries during the cold war.

Of course the war and then the bombing dragged things down a lot. 2,000%-3,000% inflation under Milosevic’s economic theories is a tough thing to get over as well.

I remember when sanctions ended and my friends started buying all sort of things on credit and becoming “Western”. Not a good long term situation for the public at large.

In addition by selling off the large public companies, Serbia has gone from a country that produces things, to a country of consumers and factory workers. Something very hard to over come. Does Serbia want her role in the EU to be that of merely cheap labor?

It’s obvious that prices will continue to raise as long as prices are the lowest in Europe and production facilities are continuously sold off to foreign interests. Selling off all the assets and taking out credit will certainly help in the short term, but not the long term unless a valid economic model is come up with. Essentially all Serbia’s profit is being sent to other countries, not a smart economic model.

China’s handling of their slow transition from communism to capitalism should be followed, not Russia’s fireside sale under Yelstin.

Why not allow public companies to compete with privately owned countries. This works very well in the US with Fed-X and the Post Office.

Albi, foreign ministers travel to other countries, that’s what they do. At least Vuk has something to talk about.

Lazar, I wasn't trying to say Slobo was responsible for the IMF interest in the country, merely that all the major political parties of the country have adapted his practices of lies and disinformation wholeheartedly. As for living standard in '97 and '98, I was here then so I don't buy it and your comment about the wealth gap is ..not worth commenting on.

'2,000%-3,000% inflation under Milosevic’s economic theories'

I dont remember it that way matthew. So i looked it up and here i'm copy pasting. Between October 1993 and January 1995 prices increased by 5 quadrillion percent. This number is a 5 with 15 zeroes after it.

now our standard. fact 1: average salary is higher in serbia than in romania not to mention bulgaria
fact 2: conservative estimate: we're owned over 20 bil dollars in reparations from nato members who illegally attacked our country. if we had serbian instead of puppet governments this would've come up at some point in the past 10 yrs.

Celt, I would question exactly to what extent were there lies and disinformation in the Milosevic era.

Matthew, inflation of thousands of percent a year was not typical during the Milosevic regime. The years of hyperinflation were during the war, and that ended in 1994. Since then the currency had been more stable. Granted that it did increase, it was relatively stable, until year 2000. As for competition... the EU countries can produce far more at a much lower cost than we can, so our companies naturally can't win in the competition.

I agree that Slobo would be proud of them. The resources of a government can be spent on productive policies, or on plane tickets for Jeremic and Co. Serbia's government can take care of its citizens, or can spend the money to antagonize Albanians. Apparently doesn't have the resources to do both.

we survived on chunks of bread and milk and we survived on sometimes just broth being a Serb=hard life anywhere these days.We will survive.

There were times when Serbian living standard was envied by the Hungarians, not to mention the Bulgarians and thje Romanians. But 20 years of wrong policy has left the Serbs behind, even before the crisis struck everyone. It is time to rething the entire strategy of national developmeni.

It's all very well blaming the IMF, but why are they here in the first place? Because of the disastrous policies of this and the previous governments who have allowed a privileged few to control all the wealth of the country, because of the cheerful denial of this government of any effects of the world economic crisis and their refusal to take adequate measures until it was too late, and now that the world recession is receding, their attempts to blame everything on the aforementioned crisis and their refusal to recognize their own mistakes. In fact, the only concrete action they are taking over this whole mess is an attempt to muzzle the press in order to save face and avoid public criticism. Slobo would be proud of them.

Albi, since albanian politicians both in Kosovo and Albania proper are pursuing the same "head in the sand and hand in your pocket" policies as the bunch currently making our lives a misery, you are hardly in a position to comment and Nik, I would agree with you except for one thing, you can't rethink something that doesn't exist.

Nik, the only reason why our living standard fell bellow those of your mentioned countries is because of the bombing. In 1997 and 1998 life in Serbia was better than in say Bulgaria. The West could not stand that we were better off.

Jovan, in the past we owned what was in Serbia. Now most things are foreign owned, so that puts this whole situation in a different context than before.

Celt, the IMF and World Bank came in AFTER Slobo. They did not come in just now, they were here since the year 2000. If you had not noticed, our debt has been booming since Slobo got kicked out. You ignore the main reason why they are here... they are institutions that represent economic development programs that the West wants to impose. The few controlling wealth of the country is a post-2000 phenomenon, as income inequality is only higher now than in was in Milosevic's era.

The decline in prosperity started decades ago, and was one of the major factors in the more prosperous regions like Slovenia and Croatia wanting to leave. Yugoslav products were considered better than Soviet ones and were held in high esteem in Warsaw pact countries during the cold war.

Of course the war and then the bombing dragged things down a lot. 2,000%-3,000% inflation under Milosevic’s economic theories is a tough thing to get over as well.

I remember when sanctions ended and my friends started buying all sort of things on credit and becoming “Western”. Not a good long term situation for the public at large.

In addition by selling off the large public companies, Serbia has gone from a country that produces things, to a country of consumers and factory workers. Something very hard to over come. Does Serbia want her role in the EU to be that of merely cheap labor?

It’s obvious that prices will continue to raise as long as prices are the lowest in Europe and production facilities are continuously sold off to foreign interests. Selling off all the assets and taking out credit will certainly help in the short term, but not the long term unless a valid economic model is come up with. Essentially all Serbia’s profit is being sent to other countries, not a smart economic model.

China’s handling of their slow transition from communism to capitalism should be followed, not Russia’s fireside sale under Yelstin.

Why not allow public companies to compete with privately owned countries. This works very well in the US with Fed-X and the Post Office.

Albi, foreign ministers travel to other countries, that’s what they do. At least Vuk has something to talk about.

Lazar, I wasn't trying to say Slobo was responsible for the IMF interest in the country, merely that all the major political parties of the country have adapted his practices of lies and disinformation wholeheartedly. As for living standard in '97 and '98, I was here then so I don't buy it and your comment about the wealth gap is ..not worth commenting on.

Surprised anybody?

This problem is known all over the world and it spells IMF & world bank. The money lenderers political demands may be good bussness for these global oligarchs but devastating for anybody else especially small countries like Serbia.

Celt, I would question exactly to what extent were there lies and disinformation in the Milosevic era.

Matthew, inflation of thousands of percent a year was not typical during the Milosevic regime. The years of hyperinflation were during the war, and that ended in 1994. Since then the currency had been more stable. Granted that it did increase, it was relatively stable, until year 2000. As for competition... the EU countries can produce far more at a much lower cost than we can, so our companies naturally can't win in the competition.

'2,000%-3,000% inflation under Milosevic’s economic theories'

I dont remember it that way matthew. So i looked it up and here i'm copy pasting. Between October 1993 and January 1995 prices increased by 5 quadrillion percent. This number is a 5 with 15 zeroes after it.

now our standard. fact 1: average salary is higher in serbia than in romania not to mention bulgaria
fact 2: conservative estimate: we're owned over 20 bil dollars in reparations from nato members who illegally attacked our country. if we had serbian instead of puppet governments this would've come up at some point in the past 10 yrs.