Serbian parliament passes 2024 supplementary budget bill

BELGRADE - Serbian MPs passed on Monday a supplementary budget bill under which the state budget for 2024 is increased by 132.5 bln dinars to 2,173 bln dinars.

A hundred and thirty-six MPs voted in favour, 51 voted against, there were no abstentions and six MPs took no part in the vote.

Serbian PM Milos Vucevic said earlier the supplementary budget bill was a result of economic and fiscal indicators in 2024 whereby the GDP projection for this year had been revised upwards from 3.5 pct to 3.8 pct.

"We defined the revenues and expenditures accordingly and proposed a 132.5 bln dinar increase of the budget of the Republic of Serbia for this year. We are still keeping the budget deficit below the level agreed with the IMF. And, above all, I would like to note that, under our projection, the public debt level will not exceed 51.5 pct of GDP, which is more than a good result considering all the economic trends we can see in the euro zone," Vucevic said, recapping a week-long debate on the bill.

He added that inflation had been curbed and projected not to exceed 4.7 pct in 2024, and added that the plan was to cut it to below 4 pct next year.

He noted that the defence budget was up by 57.2 bln dinars, totalling a "once unthinkable" 2.5 pct of GDP.

(1 euro = 117 dinars)