Wages, imports grow, GDP falls behind

Wages, imports grow, GDP falls behind

Economic Institute associate Miroslav Zdravković says the factors for the growth are the strong dinar, and the steady rise in the average salaries which has continued throughout the year.

However, salaries are this year just under 40 index points above the GDP level, while the imports level stands at 50 index points above that of the exports. Beside the salaries, there is a strong flow of capital from abroad, mostly through investments.

The rise in the average salary does not stimulate a decrease in the unemployment rate. With this average, objectively insufficient for a normal lifestyle even compared to the regional countries, few people will take on jobs that pay less that the average wage. This leads to the phenomenon of a high unemployment rate, and a large number of vacancies that are never filled.

“A high rate of salary increase brings with it the possibility of an increase in imports, which spells out a trade deficit, which for its part, slows down the recovery of the GDP. At present, the pace of that recovery is not entirely slow, but it is still insufficient to pull us out of the problems we have been facing for years”, Zdravković says, and reminds that the levels of the most successful year, 1989, are still far from reach.