Dollar Strengthening Could Increase Serbia’s Public Debt by EUR 580 Million

The growth of the value of the dollar compared to the euro and the dinar of nearly 20% in the past nine months has led to an increase in the public debt of Serbia denominated in dollars. Considering that the debt we repay in dollars amounts to around 3.4 billion, this could cause an increase of the public debt by around RSD 65 billion (around EUR 580 million), estimates the economist Goran Radosavljevic.

– The debt denominated in dollars amounts to 11% of the total public debt and, at this moment, it is not such a high risk. However, what’s worrying is the fact that around USD 1.6 billion of guarantees for new loans is planned within the 2022 budget, which, when realized, would considerably increase the share of debt in dollars. The foreign currency risk would thereby increase as well – Radosavljevic estimates.

The total public debt of Serbia at the end of May this year amounted to EUR 30.7 billion, which is 52.3% of the GDP, according to the data of the Ministry of Finance.

Ministarstvo finansija Republike Srbije

Ministry of Finance

European Central Bank

FED

Goran Radosavljević

public debt of Serbia

dollar

strengthening

euro

public debt in dollars