Vucevic: Microeconomic system paying price of "blockader policy"

BELGRADE - In spite of all divisions and tensions in society, Serbia has survived macroeconomically, but the microeconomic system, commerce, services, transport, hospitality and tourism are "suffering and paying the price" of student protests and a "blockader policy," Serbian Progressive Party leader Milos Vucevic said on Friday.

The blockades have a negative impact on FDI as well as on Serbia's international image, Vucevic said on Prva TV.

However, macroeconomically, fiscally and monetarily, Serbia is "holding well," he said, noting that, during his term as PM, Serbia had obtained an investment-grade credit rating, for the first time in history.

That is a "phenomenal invitation" to FDI and purchases of government bonds, he said.

But the blockaders are consciously eroding Serbia's reputation, Vucevic said.

"They are governed by the mantra of the worse the situation is, the better things are for them," he added.

"They want to cause negative economic consequences - negative consequences for our economy, and to make businesspeople nervous. They want them to feel unsafe and unsettled. All that is the objective of the whole blockader process and the revolution - a subsequent division and tensions that are supposed to lead to a revolution," Vucevic said.