Economy of Serbia - Public Finances

Public Finances

The Serbian Ministry of Finance performs tasks related to the state budget, public revenue, public spending and public debt in the country. Serbia's public debt relative to GDP from 2000 to 2008 decreased by 144.6 percentage points, and then started increasing again as the government was fighting effects of world-wide 2008 financial crisis.

Public debt (year-end)
Year	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011
Debt (Billions EUR)	14.17	13.43	11.53	11.02	9.68	10.28	9.35	8,88	8.78	9.85	12.16	14.48
Debt (Percent of GDP)	169.3%	105.2%	72.9%	66.9%	53.3%	52.2%	37.7%	30.9%	29.2%	34.8%	42.9%	44.8%
Source: Ministry of Finance of Serbia

The National Bank of Serbia is the central bank of Serbia and as such its main responsibilities are the protection of price stability, the dinar exchange rate policy, management of the foreign currency reserves and maintenance of efficient payment and financial systems. Serbian foreign exchange reserves were highly augmented from 2000 to 2007, when they amounted 16.07 bn USD. After that they started to decrease, and in 2008 they amounted 12.85 bn USD. As of September 2012, Serbia's budget deficit is 7.1 per cent and the public debt is almost 55 per cent of GDP.

Foreign exchange reserves (year-end)
Year	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008
National bank (bn USD)	0.52	1,17	2,28	3.55	4.24	5.84	11.89	14.22	11.48
Domestic banks (bn USD)	0.37	0.64	0.78	0.89	0.91	0.70	0.75	1.85	1.37
Total (bn USD)	0.89	1.81	3.06	4.44	5.15	6.54	12.64	16.07	12.85
Source: National Bank of Serbia