Public debt sustainability in Serbia before and during the global financial crisis

Abstract

We have analyzed the behaviour of primary fiscal balance and public debt in Serbia before and in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. The results of our analysis are: i) public debt to GDP ratioexhibits (near) unit root behaviour with an overall upward time trend; ii) the response of primary fiscal balance to public debt has been insufficient to mean revert the upward trend in government debt; iii) the efforts of the Serbian government to repay the debt principal after the fiscal rule breach have not been persistent, providing empirical support to the fiscal fatigue hypothesis; iv) the government budget constraint has deteriorated since the beginning of the global financial crisis; v) the response of primary fiscal balance to public debt from the onset of the global financial crisis has dropped more severely in comparison to other European economies.