April 2024

Serbian voluntary pension funds’ assets rise 11.5% y/y at end-2023

The net assets held by voluntary pension funds (VPFs) in Serbia rose 11.5% on the year to 53.8 billion dinars ($495 million/461 million euro) at the end of 2023, the country's central bank, NBS, said. The volume of net assets was up 2.7% compared to the end of September, NBS said in a statement on Monday. At the close of December, the majority of VPF assets were allocated to government securities, comprising 70%, with balances in custody accounts and bank time...

October 2019

Serbia to increase public sector wages, pensions this year and next

The Serbian government is ready to raise wages in the public sector this year and pensions in 2019, on the back of favourable fiscal revenues and in line with a non-financial arrangement with the International Monetary Fund, Finance Minister Sinisa Mali said on Tuesday. Read also France. Macron vows to push pension reform ‘to the end’ despite strikes The government of the Balkan country this month moved from a small surplus to a deficit of 0.5% of GDP, to allow for...

January 2019

Serbian pensioners risk poverty less than many in EU

Pensioners are at risk of poverty in Europe, according to Eurostat data, while the number of those living on edge of poverty is growing. According to EU's statistical agency's analysis covering 2017, pensioners at risk of poverty in the European Union was estimated to be 14.2 percent, slightly above the figure of 13.8 percent in 2016. The rate has been rising gradually since 2013, when it was 12.6 percent, the organization has announced. Outside the EU, candidate country Serbia...

October 2017

Serbia’s pensioners rally against government austerity measures

Hundreds of Serbian pensioners rallied in Belgrade on Thursday to protest austerity measures introduced as part of a 1.2 billion euro ($1.41 billion) loan deal with the International Monetary Fund. Chanting “thieves” and carrying banners reading “we are hungry”, the pensioners demanded that the government and Serbia’s constitutional court annul austerity cuts imposed in 2014 and refund lost pension payouts. The government of then Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic signed a three-year loan deal with the IMF in February 2015 after Belgrade...