At yesterday’s session of the parliamentary Economy Committee, Montenegro’s finance minister, Darko Radunović, noted he would be satisfied if we managed to pay out salaries, social reimbursements and pensions by the end of the year, having in mind the impact of the coronavirus on the economy.
Mr Radunović also said that there won’t be high budget spending and that’s why the adoption of the pension and disability insurance law won’t happen for now.
“The adoption of the pension and disability insurance law won’t happen this year. We had negotiations, talks, but it’d make a large fiscal impact. Right now, it’s not realistic to talk about the increase in fiscal impact on the budget, neither concerning this law nor the increase in salaries,“ emphasized the Minister during the discussion over the budget revision and amendments to the decision on borrowing, that received a majority.
He reiterated the earlier estimations that revenues from tourism this year would go down by 40% due to the coronavirus pandemic, i.e. they’d be by €450 million less compared to last year and would amount to around €650 million.
Several MPs then asked the Minister to elaborate on the grounds of his estimations.
“The estimations that revenues from tourism will be 40% lower this year is based on the projections of the Ministry of Tourism. This has been confirmed to us by the European Commission and the World Bank as well,” he replied.
The coronavirus pandemic, according to him, has staggered world’s economies. It’s important to be united and solve problems in real time, e.g. with attracting tourists.
“The whole process has to be coordinated. We cannot envisage everything by laws.“
On the motorway project, Mr Radunović noted that it’s been a great burden for us, but would pay off.
“The motorway project represents a great burden, but there is a general consensus over it – that it needs to be done and that we have to make that direction. The motorway becomes profitable when it’s finished. I have no dilemma about the sustainability and profitability of the motorway.”
In addition, we can expect a decline in foreign direct investment from 7% to 5.4%. The real fall in GDP, the Minister added, has been estimated at 6.8% this year, and then would increase gradually to 4.9% next year.
