S&P confirms Serbia’s credit rating at BB- with a view to improving

The credit rating agency S&P Global Ratings confirmed Serbia’s credit rating at BB- and reviewed the projections for improving the credit rating from stable to positive, reported the Ministry of Finance on December 30, 2016.

It was stated that the main reasons for reviewing the projections up were the successful carrying out of the fiscal consolidation program and a possibility of further improvement.

S&P Global Ratings believes that the Government of Serbia’s efforts towards reducing expenditures and an improved collection of revenues would contribute to the stabilization of the fiscal deficit in the coming medium-term period, the report says.

The agency estimated that positive fiscal trends were the result of an improved collection of tax revenues, primarily of VAT and excise taxes, as well as non-tax revenues. It was estimated that Serbia would maintain the real economic growth of 2.7% in 2016, primarily based on the growth of investments.

The rating agency points out that Serbia has improved its balance of payments position and expects that the deficit of the current account of the balance of payments will drop below 4% of the GDP in 2016, compared to 8% of the GDP on average in the 2011-2014 period. The projected level for the 2017-2019 period is 3% of the GDP on average.

Ministarstvo finansija Republike Srbije

Vlada Republike Srbije

S&P Global Ratings

credit rating

credit rating of Serbia

credit rating improvement

fiscal consolidation

fiscal deficit

value added tax

VAT

excise tax

non tax revenues

economic growth of Serbia

deficit of the current account of the balance of payments