{"id":11414,"date":"2025-07-17T12:55:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T11:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/?p=11414"},"modified":"2025-07-31T13:24:43","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T12:24:43","slug":"7-electricity-price-increase-announced-after-informer-reported-that-the-price-would-remain-the-same","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/2025\/07\/17\/7-electricity-price-increase-announced-after-informer-reported-that-the-price-would-remain-the-same\/","title":{"rendered":"7% Electricity Price Increase Announced, After Informer Reported That the Price Would Remain the Same"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

Original article<\/em><\/a> (in Serbian) was published on 15\/7\/2025; Author: Stefan Janji\u0107<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It was mid-April, and the director of the Serbian Electric Power Company (EPS),\u00a0Du\u0161an \u017divkovi\u0107,<\/strong>\u00a0told\u00a0RTS<\/a>\u00a0that this public utility had no plans to increase the price of electricity for households by the end of the year. However, his\u00a0\u201cwe don\u2019t plan to\u201d statement<\/strong>\u00a0was reported in several media outlets as definitive confirmation that\u00a0there would be no<\/strong>\u00a0price hike. Less than three months later, the public was\u00a0informed<\/a>\u00a0that higher electricity bills were likely to await us as early as the fall.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Excellent” news<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although most media outlets reported \u017divkovi\u0107’s statement with appropriate caveats,\u00a0Alo<\/a>\u00a0,\u00a0Informer<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Glas javnosti<\/a>\u00a0took it for granted. “The price of electricity will not change this year – This news interests all citizens”, was the headline of the\u00a0Alo<\/strong>\u00a0portal , while\u00a0Glas javnosti<\/strong>\u00a0stated, “EPS will not change electricity prices: The only thing that can be done is to lower the red tariff limit”.\u00a0Informer<\/strong>\u00a0published the failed announcement not only on the portal, but also on the front page of its printed edition (April 17), with the superscript\u00a0“Excellent news”<\/strong>\u00a0.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) published\u00a0a report for Serbia<\/a>\u00a0on July 10, stating that a\u00a07%\u00a0increase<\/strong>\u00a0in electricity tariffs is still planned for this year\u00a0by October. The report was accompanied by a policy statement signed by Prime Minister\u00a0\u0110uro Macut<\/strong>, NBS Governor\u00a0Jorgovanka Tabakovi\u0107<\/strong>, and Finance Minister\u00a0Sini\u0161a Mali<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good and bad news<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to the IMF report, Serbia has recently experienced steady\u00a0economic growth<\/strong>,\u00a0inflation\u00a0has approached the target level, and\u00a0unemployment\u00a0has fallen to its lowest level in ten years. Fiscal and foreign exchange reserves have also been strengthened, and the country has received\u00a0an investment-grade credit rating\u00a0for the first time. On the other hand, it is emphasized that external and internal uncertainties are increasing, and that the postponement of structural reforms could slow down the country’s ability to catch up with more developed economies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IMF report states that foreign\u00a0direct investment<\/strong>\u00a0is likely to decline in Serbia (from 5.6% of GDP in 2024 to below 4.5% by 2030), due to a decline in investment in the manufacturing sector and weaknesses such as corruption, political instability, and the gray economy. Although the authorities point to\u00a0the protests\u00a0as the main reason for the weaker investment inflow, the IMF emphasizes that other problems should also be taken into account – broader economic uncertainty at the global level, as well as political instability in Serbia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IMF also states that\u00a0additional government spending<\/strong>, with which the government would try to calm social tensions in the run-\u00a0up to the elections\u00a0(in 2027, if not earlier)<\/strong>, could jeopardize\u00a0fiscal targets\u00a0and\u00a0increase the budget deficit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Original article (in Serbian) was published on 15\/7\/2025; Author: Stefan Janji\u0107 It was mid-April, and the director of the Serbian Electric Power Company (EPS),\u00a0Du\u0161an \u017divkovi\u0107,\u00a0told\u00a0RTS\u00a0that this public utility had no plans to increase the price of electricity for households by the end of the year. However, his\u00a0\u201cwe don\u2019t plan to\u201d statement\u00a0was reported in several media […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":11415,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[316],"tags":[282,294,608,28],"class_list":["post-11414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fact-checks","tag-economy","tag-electricity","tag-imf","tag-serbia"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11414"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11417,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11414\/revisions\/11417"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/seecheck.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}