September 9 (SeeNews) - Serbia's economic growth may reach 7.5% in 2021, enabling the government to sustainably increase salaries and pensions, president Aleksandar Vucic said.
"Our goal is to keep the public debt rate at 60%, only the Baltic and Scandinavian countries, Bulgaria and Romania have lower levels and no one else," Vucic said in a statement on Wednesday.
Last month, Serbia's central bank, the NBS, revised up its forecast for the country's economic development and now expects 6.5% GDP growth in 2021, versus a 6.0% increase projected earlier.
Serbia's GDP grew by a real 13.7% year-on-year in the second quarter of 2021, after rising by 1.8% in the previous quarter, according to statistical office data.
In June, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said it expects Serbia's GDP to increase by 6% in 2021, mainly on the back of recovery of consumption and an increase in public investments.