Finance
Serbian parliament adopts 2026 budget, sets deficit at 3%
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on December 3, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
Company
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on December 3, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 20, 2026
Serbia's parliament approved the 2026 budget with a 3% GDP deficit, allocating funds for NIS takeover and Expo 2027. Military service reintroduced.
BELGRADE, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Serbia's parliament on Wednesday adopted the country's 2026 budget, setting a fiscal deficit of 337 billion dinars ($3.35 billion), or 3% of gross domestic product.
The budget sets total revenues at 2,414.7 billion dinars and expenditure at 2,751.7 billion dinars.
It also allocates 164 billion dinars Serbia could use for the takeover of U.S.-sanctioned oil firm NIS from its Russian majority owners Gazprom Neft and Gazprom, if they do not sell their stake by mid-January.
The adoption of the 2026 spending plan came as a formality, as the ruling coalition led by the populist Serbian Progressive Party has a comfortable majority of 154 deputies in the 250-seat parliament.
Total capital spending is set at 602 billion dinars, with the largest allocation, of 47.5 billion dinars, for the Expo 2027 international fair.
The budget also includes funds needed for the reintroduction of mandatory military service over the next three years, and more spending on public sector wages and pensions.
($1 = 100.6900 Serbian dinars)
(Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by Jan Harvey)
Capital spending, also known as capital expenditure (CapEx), refers to funds used by an organization to acquire, upgrade, and maintain physical assets such as property, buildings, or equipment.
Mandatory military service, also known as conscription, is a policy that requires citizens to serve in the military for a certain period, often during times of war or national emergency.
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