Vučić: "Public sector salaries to rise by 8%, social care wages by 12% from December 1" VIDEO

“Let me say two more things. Since we have received the final data, we are third in Europe in terms of growth rate, with Denmark and Malta ahead of us, and next year we will certainly be first. And secondly, I once said that the Europeans were slow when it came to the Belgrade–Niš railway, and that was not fair of me to say. We are mostly to blame for that. None of the Europeans contacted me about it; I came to that conclusion myself,” he added.

Vučić said he would present many important figures and then noted that Serbia is among the top five European countries in terms of real GDP growth over the past eight years.

“That came after a period of public finance consolidation. We grew by around 36.8 percent, compared with an average EU growth of 13 percent, while real wages are 71 percent higher and pensions 57 percent higher. This year, we expect the year-on-year inflation rate to be around three percent, so bear in mind that any increase above three percent actually represents a significant increase,” the president said.

He added that Serbia is among the least-indebted countries in Europe, with only Sweden, Luxembourg, Denmark, Ireland and a few others having lower debt.

“Everyone else is significantly more indebted, especially Greece, Spain, France, Germany, Slovenia, Latvia, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands... I just want to point out that we have managed public finances responsibly and that we did not say things were going well during our time in office only to leave a disaster for our children afterward,” he said.

The president said that foreign exchange reserves are at a record high, as are gold reserves.

“At this moment, we have €6.2 billion in gold reserves, while our total foreign exchange reserves, including gold, stand at €30.5 billion,” he said.

“Household savings are at a record level. Dinar savings are at a record high, while euro savings stand at €17.1 billion. We have record household savings, and I am particularly proud of this rate of growth because of the good returns on dinar savings,” the Serbian president said.

Vučić said that once the issue concerning NIS is resolved and the situation in the region calms down, Serbia will have good prospects for an upgrade of its credit rating by all three major rating agencies.

“We have the lowest unemployment rate in Serbia’s history, at 7.2 percent. This is an extremely important factor. Wages and pensions are important, but if there is something even more important, it is the employment rate, or rather the unemployment rate. Since 2012, we have gone from 26 percent to 7.2 percent. Just look at the number of employed people. In 2012, when there were hundreds of thousands more people in the country — 400,000 to 500,000 more — and our demographic situation was terrible, we had 1.865 million employed people. Today, with fewer people, we have 500,000 more employed people! It is all black and white, a statistical figure taken from the National Employment Service. This is not a matter of surveys or personal opinion. These are clear-cut numbers,” Vučić said.

The minimum net wage will be €600, which he said was a positive development that would help poorer people in the southern parts of the country.

“So, that will be the lowest salary in Serbia from January 1. We reduced the burden on wages, bringing it down to 59.7 percent, while the state took on a greater share of the burden compared with employers, who were expected to pay higher wages. The minimum wage is a double-edged sword, because some people may leave the country, but it will protect all workers, including those working in local shops and everyone else. We always weigh and assess these things, and I believe we have made good decisions,” he said.

He said that in 2012, the coverage of the consumer basket stood at 61 percent.

“At that time, you could afford 61 percent of the goods in the consumer basket. Now, with this increase, you can afford 117 percent, significantly more than the minimum consumer basket. This shows an improvement in living standards. It is not comfortable, but it is literally twice as good as it was just a few years ago,” he said.

Net wages have risen to €1,200, the president said, adding that this is now the average salary in Romania, an EU member state.

“The average net salary will be €1,200 at the end of this year, not next year, across the whole of Serbia. I remember that once, the head of the Democratic Party parliamentary group told me: ‘If you manage to reach an average salary of €500, I will publicly congratulate you.’ Well, we are now reaching an average salary of €1,200. And when they talk about the inflation rate, that is why I said average wages have risen by 72 percent — that figure includes inflation, so it represents real wage growth,” Vučić said.

The Serbian president said the biggest and most important news was that the salary increases would take effect on December 1, rather than January 1.