DODIK: SRPSKA SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETED PERIOD OF FISCAL CONSOLIDATION

BANJA LUKA, JANUARY 23 /SRNA/ - The President of Republika Srpska Milorad Dodik has stated today in Banja Luka that Srpska has successfully completed its period of fiscal consolidation, and that its budget deficit is 0.5 percent, while no country in the EU has a budget deficit below three percent.

Dodik pointed out that it is a success that is really impressive and deserves attention. "Republika Srpska has the lowest rate of burden on the economy. The aggregate rate of contribution to wages in Serbia is 35 percent, in Croatia 36 percent, in the Federation of BiH /FBiH/ 41.5 percent, and in Republika Srpska 31 percent," said Dodik at a press conference in Banja Luka. In such circumstances, Dodik underlined, Srpska maintained the stability of the financial system and put itself in a position to pay off all obligations and maintain jobs. "We continue to do that this year as well. At the end of September last year, we had 289,689 employees in Republika Srpska, while the number of pensioners is almost identical, which means that there is one worker for one pensioner. From public revenues, we have ensured that pensions are paid without hindrance and that we are adjusting pensions as stated in the law," said Dodik. Dodik stated that the average salary in December was BAM 1,438, and that it was on average higher than what was paid in the FBiH, and that in real terms it was higher than the same period last year by 8.2 percent. "This means that it is beyond inflation. We did all this under the conditions of low taxation of profit of 10 percent and income of eight percent. We ensured that without additional borrowing we have a successful movement of the economy," Dodik said. According to him, in the structure of employees in Republika Srpska, there are 49 percent of workers with secondary education, 27 with higher education, 11 percent of qualified workers, seven percent of highly qualified workers, one percent of semi-qualified workers, and five percent of unqualified workers. "Our economy is more competitive than in the FBiH. Our jobs are cheaper, and our productivity is much higher than in the FBiH. Our policy is aimed at controlling inflation, which was around 0.5 percent in December. We notice that prices are rising and the state will intervene in this regard, we will do everything to control the price growth," Dodik stressed. The President of Srpska pointed to the fact that there is less and less supply of quality goods from abroad, and that it will be necessary to adapt the domestic industry to production for the domestic market. Dodik reminded that in 2013, Republika Srpska produced and incorporated 341,000 tons of concrete into investments, while last year more than one million tons of concrete were incorporated into investments. He also stated that the production of bread and bakery products in 2013 was slightly above 12,000 tons, while today it is more than 21,000 tons. "We are very proud of the fact that we have higher investments than the growth of the domestic product, and that in the conditions when, with the emergence of covid, the EU closed its market for us and when we had to manage to preserve the economy. But, thanks to everything we did, we came in a position to sovereignly hold the economy in our hands," Dodik said.