The Serbian Finance Ministry and the National Bank of Serbia (NBS) should support the initiative of the Serbian Chamber of Commerce (PKS) that high interest rates charged to the citizens and companies should be halved, PKS President Milos Bugarin has stated.

"The citizens and the economy are over indebted, it is getting increasingly hard for them to repay their debts, and the state needs to react urgently so as not to repeat the scenario where banks become owners of immovables and a large part of the Serbian economy," Bugarin stated for the Belgrade-based daily Vecernje Novosti.

Bugarin said that the state must exert pressure on business banks to renounce one part of enormous revenues that they generate in Serbia owing to the highest interest rates in the region.

He believes that recession flows in Serbia have been suspended, but that one can hardly expect a significant improvement of the standard by the end of 2011.

"We will be able to say that we recovered from crisis only when the GDP growth exceeds 3.5 percent, the volume of business activity increases and new employments begin," Bugarin said.