PODGORICA (Montenegro), May 17 (SeeNews) – Montenegrin prime minister Dusko Markovic said on Wednesday the government plans to introduce next month fiscal measures aiming to bring the budget to surplus by the end of 2019.
The country's primary budget deficit decreased 75.2% year-on-year to 48.1 million euro ($53.5 million) in 2016, the finance ministry said in February.
The government plans to introduce in June fiscal measures targeting macroeconomic and fiscal stability, improvement of the business environment and creation of conditions encouraging capital investments that would support economic growth, Markovic said, as quoted in a video file posted on the website of the Montenegrin government.
As a result, public debt will start declining in 2019, he added.
Earlier this week, the European Commission said it has downgraded its forecast for Montenegro's economic growth in 2017 to 3.3% from 3.7% projected in February, due to the negative contribution of investment-related imports that is fuelling the country's budget deficit.