Records to break. The liabilities of the Government of the Republika Srpska are growing. For the third time this year. The amounts are multi-millions. The Banja Luka Stock Exchange had, during the last year, a turnover of more than one billion marks, but the largest part – as much as 890 million marks – was the responsibility of the entity authorities. The growth of interest rates in the last few months, economists warn, indicates problems with filling the budget. Entity coffers, but the holes are filled, ultimately, by citizens.
The trend of borrowing through the stock market by selling bonds and treasury bills continued this year. However, in the Ministry of Finance of the RS, they responded to the increasingly frequent name-calling a few days ago with a statement in which they state that they manage public finances and debt responsibly.
“Since the beginning of the year, Republika Srpska has paid off more debt than it has borrowed. Since the beginning of the year, receipts from borrowings amount to 91.1 million, while debt service, as of the end of February, amounts to 167 million BAM”, according to the Ministry of Finance of the RS.
And recently, a new 66th issue of bonds worth 40 million marks was held, with an interest rate of six percent and a repayment term of five years. For economists, this is a clear sign that the economy cannot generate budget revenue on its own.
“It is easiest to get into debt and thus remedy the consequences of lack of money. It’s not productive and it’s not good. They say that Germany and Japan are borrowing, but they are borrowing primarily to stimulate production and employment and create new value,” says economist Zoran Pavlović.
In the past two years, there has been an increase in interest rates, so borrowing in this way is becoming more and more expensive. Borrowing on the foreign market of almost 950 million is also planned.
“All this time, there is no mention that 500 million guarantees should be given, and now it is growing to one and a half billion. I’m afraid that the coffers have never been emptier and that it will be very difficult for them to fill the holes,” says Andrijana Pisarević, journalist of the business portal Capital.
Representatives of the opposition also warned about borrowing in the past period. They note that if this situation continues, with the rebalancing of the budget, there could be a change in the borrowing plan and at much higher interest rates.
“The interest rates at which we borrow are getting higher. Interest rates are Euribor + margin of 7.5%. It is possible that the interest rates at which we will borrow in 2024 will exceed 10 percent,” Mirjana Orašanin, MP of SDS in NSRS, points out.
The resident of Orašan notes that the statements of government representatives only according to which the public debt, according to the latest official data, is 32.7 percent of gross domestic product, are a game of statistics and numbers, where GDP increases are also affected by daily price increases, and that regardless of this parameter, it increases almost every day amount owed, Federalna writes.
