The borrowing threshold planned for this year will be almost halved thanks to this year’s revised budget and the surplus of budget funds, Finance Minister Aleksandar Damjanovic has announced, adding that he expects the parliament to adopt it.
“We borrowed only €100m in almost half a year, which is probably the lowest pace of indebtedness in the recent history of Montenegro. That speaks volumes about how the household treated funds, and I think most citizens recognize that,” says Damjanović in an interview for the Mina-business agency.
He also believes that it is important that the revised budget creates clear foundations so that, in the medium term and in the period when obligations based on earlier borrowings come to be repaid, they can also be properly serviced.
“After the potential adoption of the revised budget, the budget deficit will be at the level of 3%, which is in accordance with the Maastricht criteria,” says Damjanovic.
Speaking about the reasons for revising the budget, Damjanovic says that it is factually of a technical nature and that it is conditionally positive, because it is necessary to balance the revenues, which are higher by some €225m, and which record growth compared to the planned and last year’s ones.
One of the reasons is that the €27m of the European Union (EU) donation, part of which has already been allocated to pensioners in the form of aid, must technically be generated within the budget.
