June 21 (SeeNews) - Serbia recorded a budget surplus of 2 billion dinars ($19 million/16.8 million euro) in May, instead of the projected deficit, finance minister Sinisa Mali said on Friday.
The positive budget performance since the beginning of the year will allow the government to increase pensions and salaries in the public sector by the end of the year, Mali said, according to a statement by the Serbian government.
Value added tax (VAT) and excise revenues are higher than projected which indicate that the economic situation is much better than predicted, Mali said.
Serbia's budget surplus fell to 5.5 billion dinars in the first four months of 2019 from 6.6 billion dinars in the prior-year period, according to official figures.
In 2018 the country's budget showed a surplus of 32.2 billion dinars, compared to a surplus of 33.9 billion dinars in the previous year.
(1 euro = 118.868 dinars)