April 6 (SeeNews) - Serbia's industry may begin recovering from the coronavirus crisis in the fourth quarter of this year, the president of the Serbian Association of Economists, Aleksandar Vlahovic, said.
"I do not think the recovery will come so fast, we expect a slight acceleration of industrial production towards the end of the third and in the fourth quarter of 2020," Vlahovic said in a video file posted on the website of private broadcaster TV Prva on Saturday.
Now the government should not think about keeping the budget surplus, but to increase expenditure in order to support the economy, Vlahovic opined.
According to the latest available data from the Serbian statistical institute, industrial production grew 7.6% year-on-year in February, before the outbreak of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the country.
Last week, finance minister Sinisa Mali said that Serbia is introducing a 5.1 billion euro ($5.6 billion) financial relief package in order to mitigate the impact of the coronavirus crisis on the economy including a 2 billion euro loan guarantee scheme with commercial banks in the country. The state budget will provide up to 65% of the financing for the package, while the remainder will come from borrowing on international markets, Mali said.
($ = 0.926566 euro)