Serbia will increase wages for doctors, teachers and army officers by 10 percent from January next year, Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said on Saturday. Presenting the results of the first three months of her government, Brnabic said pensions will increase by five percent from next year and civil servants will also get a five percent pay rise.
"The fiscal consolidation is continuing, public debt at the end of September was 65.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), which is 7.6 percent lower compared to end-2016," Brnabic, Serbia's first female and openly gay prime minister, told reporters. The government has yet to discuss wage and pension increase with the International Monetary Fund mission this month during a final review of a 1.2 billion euro ($1.42 billion) loan deal.
The IMF last month cut its growth forecast to 2.3 percent from 3.0 percent, citing a fall in electricity output in winter and lower than expected crop yields due to months of drought. Serbia signed a three-year loan deal with the fund in February 2015 and committed to savings measures aimed at reducing its debt and cutting its budget deficit.