The State Audit Institution will in the next few days begin an audit of Serbia's public debt for 2011, said Radoslav Sretenovic, the president of the Council of the State Audit Institution.

"Currently public debt exceeds 45 percent of Serbia's GDP and on March 31 this year it was over EUR14.6 billion," Sretenovic told journalists at a conference on raising the financial responsibility of the government in Serbia.

He said that the State Audit Institution had warned that the level of public debt was approaching the legally prescribed limit of 45 percent of GDP and that it stood at 44.3 percent.

Sretenovic said that the State Audit Institution had also earlier pointed out the rising public debt and added that information on the amount of public debt publicized by the National Bank of Serbia and the Finance Ministry differed. Asked who would be responsible for excessive debt, he said that it ought to be the Serbian government and the Finance Ministry's Public Debt Administration.

Sretenovic announced the State Audit Institution would next year conduct an audit of the expediency of the spending of public resources, which would answer questions on how economically and efficiently the state is spending tax payers' money.