Mali: No 2027 Budget by Dec 20 Means Temporary Financing

Caretaker Finance Minister Sinisa Mali said that if the budget for next year is not adopted by December 20, the government will move to a temporary financing decision. He made the statement to Tanjug in Belgrade on November 5, and, according to N1, published parts of it on his Instagram account as well.

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

Mali summed up the legal deadline in a single sentence:

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

The minister explained how long such a decision lasts: “A temporary financing decision is made for three months and can be extended twice, by three months each time.” He added that the rule is “that neither revenues nor expenditures can exceed one quarter of the expenditures and revenues from the current year”.

In other words, the decision covers three months, can be extended twice by three months, and under it revenues and expenditures are measured against one quarter of this year’s figures.

Who would propose the 2027 budget?

Asked whether and when Serbia will get a budget for 2027, Mali answered that this is not a matter for the caretaker government:

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

He then described what follows if a new government is not formed in time:

“If they do not form a government, if the budget for next year is not adopted by December 20, then, we will go with a temporary financing decision, and we wait for them, we wait for their government and, in the end, we wait for their proposal of the 2027 budget.”

The sequence Mali lays out is a temporary financing decision first, then a budget proposal from the new authorities.

Where does public debt stand ahead of the deadline?

A day before that statement, the Ministry of Finance published public debt figures. At the end of September, debt stood at 41.96 billion euros, or 43.3% of gross domestic product. The comparison with earlier points:

• end of 2025: 39.34 billion euros, 43.7% of GDP
• end of August 2026: 41.93 billion euros, 43.3% of GDP
• end of September 2026: 41.96 billion euros, 43.3% of GDP

Since the end of last year, debt has grown by 2.62 billion euros, while its share of GDP has fallen by 0.4 percentage points. Compared with August, the nominal increase is 0.03 billion euros, or 30 million euros, with the share of GDP unchanged.

Earlier this week, Mali also announced that pensions will rise 7.5% from December and public administration wages 8%. The legal deadline for the 2027 budget that he has now mentioned remains December 20.