Finance
Serbia to cap consumer goods profit margins and personal loan rates
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on August 24, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on August 24, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Serbia will cap profit margins on consumer goods and loan rates to control inflation. The measures aim to improve living standards amid rising inflation.
BELGRADE (Reuters) -Serbia's government will order a cap on food and consumer goods profit margins as well as interest rates on cash loans from next week, populist President Aleksandar Vucic said on Sunday.
The decrees aimed at raising living standards follow months of daily anti-corruption protests and inflation that rose to 4.9% in July, against the central bank's target of 3%, give or take 1.5%.
Vucic said that large retailers of food, beverages and other consumer goods will have to keep profit margins around 20%, down from about 40%, or risk hefty fines.
"We are introducing these measures to increase purchasing power and living standards ... and (contain) inflation," Vucic told reporters.
The president also said that commercial banks should cap rates on cash loans to private borrowers to about 7.5%, down three percentage points from the average. The central bank this month kept its benchmark rate unchanged at 5.75%.
The government will adopt the decree next week, Vucic said.
Such decrees are executive orders that do not require parliamentary approval.
(Reporting by Aleksandar VasovicEditing by David Goodman)
Inflation is the rate at which the general level of prices for goods and services rises, eroding purchasing power. It is typically measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
Profit margins are a financial metric that shows the percentage of revenue that exceeds the costs of goods sold. It indicates how efficiently a company is managing its expenses.
Interest rates are the cost of borrowing money or the return on savings, expressed as a percentage of the principal amount. They can vary based on economic conditions and monetary policy.
Cash loans are short-term loans that provide borrowers with immediate cash, typically requiring repayment within a few weeks or months, often with high interest rates.
Purchasing power refers to the amount of goods and services that can be bought with a unit of currency. It is influenced by inflation and income levels.
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