Sinisa Mali: pensions up 7.5%, public wages 8% in December

Serbia’s caretaker Finance Minister Sinisa Mali confirmed on Wednesday, November 4, in a statement to the Tanjug news agency, that the increases due on December 1 remain in place. Pensions rise 7.5% under the so-called Swiss formula, public administration wages rise 8%, and social welfare workers get a 12% raise.

The same conversation covered the November payment schedule, which Mali did not leave open: self-employed pensioners have already been paid, farmers and military pensioners get theirs tomorrow, and the largest group, employees, on November 10.

“Despite this chaos and hysteria you have seen over the past 10 or so days, citizens should know that our public finances are still stable.”

That is how Mali opened his statement to Tanjug. He did not say what exactly he meant by chaos and hysteria, at least not in the parts of the statement published by Tanjug and Kurir.

When do November pensions and wages arrive?

Based on what the minister said, the schedule looks like this:

• November 3: pensions in the self-employed category, already paid
• November 5: pensions for farmers and military pensioners
• November 10: pensions for employees, the largest group
• November 5 and 20: October wages in public administration, paid in two parts, with the same schedule for culture workers

Mali said:

“Tomorrow we pay pensions to farmers and to those who are military pensioners, and on the 10th of this month we will pay the pensioners who are the largest in number, from the category of employees”

On self-employed pensioners, he said they were paid as early as yesterday: “As recently as yesterday, as far as pensioners are concerned, we paid the pensions in the so-called self-employed category.”

For education, health care, the judiciary and social welfare, the minister gave no dates. He said only that “every category has its own dynamics, from education, health care, the judiciary, to social welfare.”

How did the minister explain that the money is secured?

Mali presented the pension increase as a commitment for which the money has already been set aside:

“We have also secured the money. As you know, from December 1 pensions go up 7.5 percent under the so-called Swiss formula, so we will fulfill this obligation and this promise that we made”

As proof of stability, he pointed to the balance on the budget account: “We have somewhere over 400 billion dinars in the budget account, so in that respect we have kept stability, and we will meet all the obligations we have in the way I have just described.” That is more than 400 billion dinars, or about 3.4 billion euros.

Pensions of former Alta banka clients

The statement comes a day after the start of a payout that is a separate story. On November 3, Postal Savings Bank (Postanska stedionica), in cooperation with the Republic Pension and Disability Insurance Fund and with the consent of the National Bank of Serbia, began a one-off payment of pensions to self-employed pensioners who had until then received their pensions through Alta banka. The PIO Fund said on Tuesday that, based on data supplied by the Fund, Postal Savings Bank will open temporary accounts for these beneficiaries and transfer the money to them. We have already written about that payout.

What if the 2027 budget is not adopted by December 20?

In the second part of the statement, carried by Novosti, Mali explained what follows if next year’s budget is not adopted on time:

“The law is very clear: if the budget for next year is not adopted by December 20 of this year, then a decision on temporary financing follows.”

According to him, a temporary financing decision is made for three months and can be extended twice, each time by three months. Revenues and expenditures in that period may not exceed a quarter of the current year’s revenues and expenditures.

Mali considers the question of who will propose the 2027 budget one for the next government:

“So it is a matter of technique, and whether and when Serbia will have a new budget for next year is a question for those who come after us.”

He added that if the budget is not passed by December 20, a decision on temporary financing follows while the country waits for a new government and its proposed 2027 budget.