- Government of Montenegro
PM Marković: Government will not buy social peace ...
Please note: The page below represents the archived content relating to the previous Government of Montenegro. Some of the information might be inaccurate or outdated.
Archive
PM Marković: Government will not buy social peace by increasing salaries without any objective grounds
Published on: Dec 12, 2018 • 9:39 PM Author: PR Service
Podgorica, Montenegro (12 December 2018) – "For the third year in a row, this Government has been proposing a budget, which is entirely financed from the original income. There is no indebtedness for consumption, and in public sectors we pay as much as we can earn, without new burdens for the economy and citizens. We want to keep it that way," said Prime Minister Duško Marković at the Prime Minister's Questions session answering the question by Raško Konjević, MP, from the Social Democratic Party why the Government does not increase salaries in education, health care and the security sector.
The Prime Minister said that he thinks that this issue is best to comment based on concrete facts:
"The Montenegrin economy grew at a rate of 4.7% in 2017 and 4.8% in the first half of 2018, due to the fact that revenues in 2017 were $ 79 million higher than in 2016, and in 11 months of 2018, they were EUR 181 million higher in relation to the same period of 2017. But let's stop here. We all know well about the imbalance in revenue and expenditure that accompanies our public finances. Namely, the budget deficit in 2016 was 3.4% of GDP or 135 million euros, in 2017 5.5% of GDP or 237 million, while the 2018 deficit is estimated at around 3.8% of GDP or 173 million euros. This means that the growth of the economy fails to cover the costs of loan repayment and interest, including the construction of the motorway, as well as all the costs of the Capital Budget and the development of the country. And we do not want to stop development, because without development there are no new values or opportunities for foreign investments, new incomes and new jobs," said the Prime Minister.
He added that earnings are not at the level he would like them to be.
"But I still believe that public-sector wages are quite decent and reflect the socio-economic environment in which we live, that is, the power of our economy. The fact that at this moment we cannot increase the salaries of employees does not mean that the results of our efforts to improve the environment and the conditions in which these employees live and work, as well as the quality of services provided to citizens, are not already seen. Responsible access to state money and the sustainability of public finance do not give us unfortunately the right to increase public-sector wages. The Government will not buy social peace by increasing salaries without any objective grounds. Let's remember the Greek scenario. We do not want to give new generations greater responsibilities based on irresponsible public spending, but we want economic growth, development of infrastructure, new roads, hospitals and schools, new jobs, paid as much as the budget and the real economy can withstand," Prime Minister Duško Marković underlined.
The Prime Minister concluded by noting that, unlike the comfort of parliamentary rhetoric, decisions made by the Government need to be fair to all structures of the society, and that this is not easy to do in a developing country. "Our decisions need to be free from transitional solutions and any political calculations," Prime Minister Duško Marković stated.
PUBLIC RELATIONS SERVICE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF MONTENEGRO
Related articles:
Press release from the 69th Cabinet session Feb 20, 2025
Is this page useful?