Chief of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Mission to Serbia Albert Jaeger and IMF Resident Representative in Serbia Bogdan Lissovolik have warned about the possible danger of unrealistic fiscal promises of politicians in the pre-election year, stressing that fiscal responsibility will be the key element of each recipe according to which Serbia would again be turned into a prosperous country.

On the contrary, if the fiscal responsibility is not sustainable, Serbia will be back to the scheme that it was used to i.e. the scheme of unsustainably high demand and import, with little chances that it will ever reach the living standard of wiser and more responsible countries that it looks up to, Jaeger and Lissovolik stated for Belgrade-based daily Politika.

The fear remains that all Serbian politicians are more than ready to promise a shortcut to a better standard of living through unrealistic fiscal promises, particularly the ones referring to high salaries in the public sector and pensions or too low taxes. This type of fiscal promises is particularly popular in the pre-election period, the IMF officials stated.

During the last 10 years, according to the IMF, fiscal expenses of a typical pre-election year in Serbia amounted to about three percent of the Gross Domestic Product, the IMF officials noted, recalling that Serbia is again in a pre-election year.