The Serbian parliament has approved the country's 2026 budget, with the fiscal deficit set at 337 billion dinars ($3.35 billion), or 3% of gross domestic product, Reuters reported, quoted by News.bg.
Total revenues amount to 2,414.7 billion dinars, and expenditures - 2,751.7 billion dinars. Separately, 164 billion dinars are planned, which Serbia can use to acquire the US-sanctioned oil company NIS from its Russian majority owners "Gazprom Neft" and "Gazprom" if they do not sell their stakes by mid-January.
The budget's adoption was a formality, as the ruling coalition, led by the Serbian Progressive Party, has a comfortable majority of 154 deputies in the 250-seat parliament.
Capital spending amounts to 602 billion dinars, with the largest allocation - 47.5 billion dinars - for the international exhibition Expo 2027. The budget also includes funds for the reintroduction of compulsory military service over the next three years, as well as increases in public sector salaries and pensions.