Europe > Southern Europe > Montenegro > Montenegro published its draft budget bill for 2015

Montenegro: Montenegro published its draft budget bill for 2015

2014/11/19

Montenegro published its draft budget bill for 2015, which includes cutting 7.3 million euro off the public-sector wage bill compared to 2014, reducing the figure to 380 million euros.

It comes next the cabinet last week set the 2015 budget at around 1.9 billion euros.

The figure is a quarter higher than 2014, to cover loans for highway construction and repayments of previous loans.

The bill is a disappointment to trade unions, which last week reiterated their request for an increase in salaries in 2015.

Finance Minister Radoje Zugic said that Montenegro could not afford wage rises. “The ministry open to discuss the issue... but we clearly told them that there will not be an increase,” Zugic said.

Education, health and military unions are the majority persistent in demanding significantly higher salaries next year.

They have demanded increases of 30 %, saying the government has the money to cover the rises as a lot of national institutions "use additional resources than they should".

Unions have based their request for fee raises on a previous agreement with the government, which promised negotiations on wage rises if GDP recorded increase of over 3.5 %, which the Montenegrin Statistical Office has confirmed.

The government expects to run a budget deficit of 6.78 % and may borrow up to 650 million euros in 2015 to cover loan obligations and the budget deficit.

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