Deputy President of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) Aleksandar Vucic said Sunday that the Serbian government is responsible for the drastic decline of 58 percent in the standard of living of citizens since November 2009.

Vucic presented at a press conference data based on the party's research, which shows that in 2009, a young couple with a baby needed RSD 28,616 for the basic consumer basket, and today the figure is 45,265.

The situation is similar with the standard of pensioners. He said that 957,000 pensioners receive a pension of less than RSD 22,921, which is less than necessary to purchase the subsistence minimum.

Speaking about the possibility of savings in the republican budget, Vucic said that SNS has proposed a reduction of the number of MPs and all those who eat people's money every day, and are in office exclusively according to party affiliation.

Only by reducing the number of state secretaries, about EUR 20 million can be saved, said Vucic.

Instead, the government only last year increased the number of employees in public administration by 2000.

Since 2000, the whole apparatus has been increased three and a half times, Vucic said.