The Role Of Governement In Overcoming The Effects Of Global Economic Crisis In Serbia - Obstacles From The Past

Economic policy in Serbia as in other countries in the process of economic transition and consolidation of democracy emerges as a source of opportunistic and ideologically motivated political manipulation. This manipulation was primarily by fiscal policy, motivated by opportunistic motives of policymakers. Due to the type of government - coalition governments, which have been present in Serbia since 2000, we can acknowledge the problem of distributional conflict, as a conflict between the coalitions partners concerning the agreement about burdening particular social structures with fiscal stabilization, as well the total cost of reform. Simultaneously, the size and structure of government expenditure was also determined by privatization revenues, which were partly channeled to the state budget. Fiscal manipulation therefore prevented formation of an efficient fiscal system and a transparent budget process which created an additional restriction on the macroeconomic policy in Serbia during the period of the global economic crisis when the need to stimulate economic activity required measures of fiscal stimulus. In such unfavourable circumstances Serbia was hit by the global economic crisis in 2009 and policymakers were not able to significantly use fiscal stimulations due to frequently use of fiscal manipulation in the past.